One of them told me they only have to provide 15 days notice, which doesn’t help if I am on vacation for a few weeks or haven’t checked my PO Box in a few weeks.

Farmers Insurance has a vacation rental division called Foremost. 

It's a decent tool, but as Greg mentioned, I'd definitely plan for a worst case scenario and make sure it cash flows at the highest interest rate juuuust in case. 

Areas like Downtown, Summerville, and West Augusta are particularly desirable due to their proximity to amenities, universities, and employment centers.In terms of your preferred strategies, it would be helpful to know what type of lending you plan to use.

We are starting the process of analyzing deals, making a plan and executing on it. 

If you plan to grow your portfolio, consider setting up separate LLCs for each property to shield them from liabilities tied to others, though this adds complexity and costs. 

I have some upcoming repairs needed that outweigh the Homestead Exemption and plan to make my primary home a long term rental in the next 7 years but the repairs can’t wait.  

Are you planning to buy more properties?

The company managing our property as a vacation rental was unable to get the power turned on in our condo for months because we had to get the meter switched into our name with the electric company (which is much more difficult to do in CR than in the United States).

Keep that in mind if you plan to scale and buy more properties.