Would love to connect and be a resource to you anyway that I can - I'm a realtor, and investor in the area and have some tips & tricks you can implement into your business and see if it helps! 

I would only recommend purchasing items that fall into that vision. 

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I highly recommend you start going to meetups.  

Some will follow staff recommendations almost all the time .. others will not..

It is surprisingly easy to manage out of state and if you want more tips on how, check out Bigger Pockets book "30 Day Stay" on Mid Term Rentals. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the Cape Coral/fort Meyers area, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

If you're willing and able, I do recommend the "house hacking" strategy which is just a fancy name for buying a rental property and living in one of the units, because you'll get very favorable financing - an owner-occupied fixed-rate 30-year mortgage.I'd also say, analyze that property as if you won't live there and it's a pure rental, and make sure the property is still cash flow positive if there's a tenant in your unit because then you'll know if it's actually a good investment.And when you analyze it, include payment of a property manager in your #s because if you don't, and doing so would make it go cash flow negative, then you've just bought yourself a job because you literally can't step away from managing it without losing money.

I would recommend opening up a brokerage account with Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard or any other large firm like this. 

To get started - I’d recommend connecting with local STR investors and researching Hawaii’s regulations.