I believe that with any industry there are sleazy individuals who will lie, cheat and steal to make a bigger buck but as we all know that is not a sustainable long term strategy.

It makes sense with the huge losses the state has sustained in the past.Good luck to everyone in whatever direction you choose to go!

If you don't learn to live BELOW your means you will NEVER have sustained wealth.

A REI is only an investment if is self sustaining. 

The other question is whether job growth and migration will be able to sustain Cape Coral's growth over the long run.

Generally speaking, local private capital markets in developing countries such as CR tend to be less developed (surprise, surprise), so you won't find any mega buy-out funds, but you will find relatively modest sized funds investing locally into agriculture, tourism, etc... so if you can tie your real estate investment goals to an eco-tourism project / sustainable producing farm, then you could have an interesting play there.

You're wanting to create a business that will sustain itself and you in less than 5 years with no money to start with.

Will you be able to sustain the balance of your other sources of cash?

Again; it depends what your end goal is, to invest for the long run and build equity through time and appreciation, or to have immediate cash flow to sustain your life style.

Short term rental is higher profit, but higher upkeep / attentionLong term is lower profit, but lower upkeep / attentionMid term doesn't provide higher profit or lower the upkeep, tenants will "move in", but not really, so you have to clean up more sustained messes and deal with more problems, but you don't get any reward for it.