As to the quandary posed by the OP: The root of the issue is that it basically sucks to be an RE investor these days.

@Steve Babiak, unless he registered with Pennsylvania as a contractor, he would not show up on there, the company as the OP stated is from NJ where he would be registered. he should be registered in PA if he is doing work there, so i agree, he should have shown up on those sites, i am a contractor in NJ but do not do work in PA, not even my own properties, so i do not show up on those sites.

This is from the State of Florida's website and here's the answer to the op's question.

OP look at your buy box, REI strategy and approach. 

And one point the OP made about their credit.. only gurus talk about that.. by the time someone is days away from foreclosure their credit is trashed  having it actually go to sale will hurt a tiny bit .. but your not saving anything. 

OP.  

but with that said, it seems like you're assuming OP will be able to have a high performing / top performing STR (which i think we would all agree would beat unleveraged market returns.) 

Condos will be your best option when compared to co-ops because only about 15% of co-ops allow subletting.

OP.

OP.