Then you'll need to find land, acquire it, find a spec home buyer and set up meetings to design plans or buy a set online with mods.

I haven't even begun to look for sellers or buys yet.

If I were in your position, I would buy a duplex that has potential for value add, fix it up, live in one unit and rent out the other unit as a medium term rental or long term rental.

Buy a quality property, stay away from the hood, rehab it as if you would move in, take your time picking a tenant, you'll be find.

Nothing beats buying leveraged rentals! 

Out of state investors can do really well here, but you can also lose a decent chunk of money if you buy wrong.Lots of out of state investors, especially those from California get a little blindsided because everything here is so cheap it all looks like a guaranteed great deal.

We're connected with a lot of relocation networks at Cone and several through BHHS (which I'm affiliated with for buying/selling).

When I did my research for buying my properties in Costa Rica, I had one of the big STR management companies like Evolve analyze my potential profits and I used that info to raise money through bringing on partners to buy the properties. 

Great questions—buying in an AE flood zone definitely comes with risks, but it can also be an opportunity if you analyze the numbers, insurance costs, and future resale potential carefully.

If you are looking for a more active solution you could buy a turnkey STR.