my next step is to find the best and most affordable market for my investment!  

Step 1 bunch of info to read and review to “teach” basics.

Great job taking the step to get a property in contract! 

I think if you can nail that down you will be able to find a market easier.As a buy and hold investor some of the things that were important to me when deciding on a market were landlord tenant laws, price to rent ratio, housing demand, ability to build a team, large population 500K plus, multi-family availability and some other factors.take the process step by step and you will be fine. 

Keep records of all communication, and be prepared to take further steps if necessary.

Based on some of the previous similar threads, it seems that having a good cross-border team is a crucial step in this game.

@Nadeem Alamgir Thanks for the step by step detailed suggestions!

Do you feel like you are stepping up and doing what you need to do to obtain the life and results you desire? 

Pretty,  as others have stated here, the permitting process through the City of Cape Coral has been hindered by their ability to scale up their staff to handle the massive demands for all permitting including new construction but also anything else that requires a permit, home improvements, sea walls, alternative sea walls, pools and more.From your post, I can see that you are frustrated, and I believe some of that is due to not understanding the steps and processes of new construction, including what must be done prior to submitting permits.

What would be the very first steps to get started?