I know I need to get a credit card and keep my utilization ratio low, but I wouldn't know much about the process of actually receiving a conventional loan from a bank or any type of loan.

Current section 8 tenants pay $2100 rent...plus utilities.

Most states allow you to hire your own adjustor to come up with your own damage amount and then argue with the insurance company about.The insurance company will want to see the signed lease, proof of funds the tenant paid and confirmation the utilities were on and preferably in the tenant's name.

I would definitely encourage to utilize all the resources that Bigger Pockets has to offer. 

It is better suited to someone who loves Costa Rica and would like a property that they can spend a few months a year at if they would like and still cash flow after all maintenance and utilities and taxes.  

Utilities weren’t quite there yet, and Jeff almost walked away.

Now I aim for bigger and better, I want to buy a home FOR airbnb but I still want to simultaneously still do airbnb arbitrage, the benefits are just too great at the moment and to be honest a lot of the money profit wise I just have been utilizing to put back into the business and further expanding, paying off business line of credit and such.

Make sure utilities are available, and that you have tap fees included in your estimate, as well as engineering (site plan), architectural plan, and other bits you might need to consider for your market (landscaping and costs of sale, for example).

Just because the costs might be in the furture does not warrant not budgeting for those known expensesThen there is the misc costs of asset protection, bookkeeping, unexpected utilities (such as between tenants (tenant turn over) or failure not attributable to the tenant such as slab leak).  

Title report, confirm utilities and zoning etc.