I’m currently in the save all of money phase, I want a couple years of solid savings and some education before I get started, I’m 33 and have been working construction my whole life so this will be a much different career path for me.

When revenue is low in the first couple of year, so is the interest payment.  

None of these communities will be changing to residential neighborhoods, although a couple do have residential 'sides' that full time residents live in and can not be rented short term.Two of the big communities that you will have some issues with self managing are Reunion and Margaritaville.

Quote from @Bo Baudrexl: I have been on Baselane for a couple months now.

A couple of assumptions I see here stand out to me.

As we have all seen, Californians are leaving in droves over the past couple of years, and fleeing to Florida, Texas and yep...Arizona.As long as we continue to stay under LAs housing market for affordability, we are going to continue to net those homeowners wanting an upgrade to a bigger house or lot. 

I looked at Sapphire pretty hard last year, and made a couple of offers there, but in the end decided it wasn't the market for me.

I'd personally sell the townhouse (doesn't sound like it cashflows or would make a good rental property) - you may have no capital gains if you have lived in it the past 2 out of 5 years - I believe the first 250k for single filers is exempt from taxes and the first 500k for married couples.

Just a heads-up: with the way the insurance market has been here over the past couple of years, this is accurate as of today, but things could look very different (for better or worse) in 6+ months.

Plus by taking long-term debt you have more flexibility (emergency case here) of a couple hundred if you came into financial difficulty.