tough one.. generally you have a captain and then crew.where I have seen this work is through an earn in situation.

Then you can consider researching and finding something that meets your needs better.

Then here.

We would also calculate two different "worst case scenarios"...what if they don't pay and what if they do...then go with the lowest strike price as our ceiling.

You really don't need that LLC until you pay off the property and it's questionable if you need it then as long as you maintain your property and have correct insurance.Yes to wind insurance, not sure about hurricane.I use Foremost STR policy for one property.I am about to switch to USAA (retired Navy) for another because they quoted a policy that was 3k lower than what we have.

I would probably start in Albany and then 1031 into 2-3 multifamily buildings in the city, but you'll do you and I'll do me.I live and invest in east side of Rochester, NY, there is a shortage of houses due to 20 years of negative population growth followed by significant growth post pandemic. 

Once you own them, then you can refi them separately in a year or two.  

This is a good question.I found that meetups are kind of like you described not much really happens there and for sure REIAs and their monthly meeting kind of the same people talking about the same thing then bring in ( at least what i have seen with the PDX reia) folks that are presenting on things that worked decades ago.. and want to sell their stuff for a few grand.For me personally the best networking hands down was SF Bay Area events  San Jose Reiaand LA  FIBI events.folks in those markets are very real estate centric and generally more experienced and in San Jose so many tech folks that have done really really well.. maybe not in RE but have done great in TECH and have quite a bit of bandwidth for investments..

My inspector emails me the report and then I dive in and do the heavy reading.

The seller pays extra compensation to the listing agent who then splits it with your agent (this is the way most transactions were done before 2024.