Now, my NEXT purchase will be strictly for investment purposes.

Strictly from a monetary perspective, if you plan on continuing to work at all, remember Texas does not have any state income tax either.When purchasing, you will also be exempt from the VA Funding Fee for your VA Loan, which is about 2.3% of the purchase price (assuming it's first use and less than 5% down payment).Orlando has one of the fastest growing populations, but it heavily reliant on tourism, Dallas still has great continued job and population growth, and NJ is seeing both population and price increases right now as more New Yorkers continue to migrate to the area.Since you'll be living in the area, where would you be most happy?

I invest in florida, down there they are very strict about permits for windows and doors due to hurricanes.

Or strictly buy and hold?

To clarify, and this might be where I get called crazy, I am looking at purchasing this strictly as an investment property.

If you don't follow the strict rules for holding security deposits than you open yourself up to being sued by the tenants.

Rent control, very strict eviction and buyout rules.

He was very pleased with us, but was strictly looking at savings, and said he and his wife and grown son could do the maintenance themselves, and save that money.

If you convey title to just yourself as part of the refinance then he will have to pay the capital gain taxes on his sold property at that point because there is no replacement property for those funds and thus the tax deferment has ended.There are strict time limits and qualified intermediary (QI) requirements with a 1031 exchange.

With the Covid crisis, I'm wondering what kind of modifications you have needed to make to things like your strategy or cleaning routines?