I personally would go with cedar and have vertical posts spaced 5 inches apart.

@Mindy Jensen A little too personal to post publicly but if I can figure out how to PM you I would love to get others opinions. 

Make sure you dig into the podcasts, books, webinars, YouTube videos and finally a local meet-up to network in person locaclly. 

Your post is under the house-hacking section, do you plan to house-hack and live in this property that you purchase in Jacksonville.If you are planning to live here in Jacksonville, it is important to choose a good neighborhood that you would enjoy living in.I personally like the 5 points/riverside, San Marco and Southside/Baymeadows area.These areas have more resturants/activities than other parts of Jacksonville in my opinion.

This means cash flow isn't possible pretty much for the life of the loan but we can theoretically sustain that if it's a good investment, and we'll have a solid tenant who takes care of the space.2.

It's not my personal favorite and I don't focus in 38127 for my own investing but I know the area and have helped my clients acquire some deals here and they seem to love the zip code!

I personally prefer to not be over leveraged but I have at least some type of leverage on every property.

Or should I also include my own personal labor into the rehab cost?

Interest on that mortgage was a personal itemized deduction on Schedule A. 

Now that’s not a teaching question, I can’t give it up, it already got saturate because things moved online, (sherif sales) Thankfully some are coming back in person.