My property manager will be listing my first one for $2,500 once it's done in March (just waiting on State Health Inspector to approve the septic inspection). - Land prices for a "clean" lot (no protected species, no flood zone, away from busy highway, etc.) are now a minimum of $40k and more like $45-$50k for a freshwater canal lot.

I depend on city inspectors to tell me if something is not done right.  

When I purchased the house, there were signs of termites but no damage (at least according to the inspector).

I found independent inspectors.

Hi Margarita-Great question.There are many mental blocks and friction points to buying your first property.First off, just buying property outside of a first or second home to use is not done by most people and buying your first home is a major purchase for most people.That means the people in our immediate sphere of influence are not thinking about buying investment property, they see it as risky and out of a sense of protecting you or themselves encourage you not to do it.I remember having the same mental blocks and fears you probably do thinking about buying your first property or first investment property.The most critical thing to overcoming these mental blocks is self education and surrounding yourself with the best team of people to help you.An investor friendly Realtor who can refer you to an investor friendly lender, title company or closing office, property inspector, property manager, and insurance agent.Real estate is relational and having the best team will keep you out of the weeds.To Your Success!

In the rental I just bought the home inspector cited lack of a fire wall between the house and the garage, so I had a contractor put a fire wall in even though EV charging wasn't even on my mind, but now I am glad I spent the money.I am not against EV's.

Relationships with town and state inspectors.

This will let you know if they understand the scope of work that needs to be done to fix up the property to the City inspector building code/standards. 

I'm a former surveyor ( 20 years ) and taking test to become a certified home inspector in June 2024.

Using the different things the home inspector found to help decrease the selling price.