When ready, start with a small property, near home, with enough capital in reserve to handle adversity.  

How do you handle organizing this?

From a personal standpoint I target 70% LTV for any investment I have that way gives me ability to sell it if I need tooI'm Canadian so it a T4 up here and yes I'm I high earner who can handle vacancies if need be. 

I’ve handled almost every aspect of renovations myself—plumbing, tiling, painting, drywall, and general construction.

If you ever decide you want a more passive approach, there are turnkey companies out there that handle everything for you.

.- Risk Awareness: Flood zone designations still help people understand general flood risks in their area.Elevation still matters under Risk Rating 2.0, but its role is handled differently compared to the old system.Under the old system, elevation certificates were often required to calculate insurance rates.

I shared with my loan officer that I was “unimpressed” with the way underwriting was handling my file after declaring it complete.

A benefit of this setup is that VRBO still processes payments and handles the transaction.

The PMS around here are pretty terrible, I've worked with a lot of the larger ones in Cleveland and I think they just take on more properties than they can effectively handle and don't hire enough additional employees to make it work. 

Best of luck with the appeals, while PPMG handles all the day to day, we can do we can to limit expenses on our end.