Good suggestion. 

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Can't seem to find anything on the Ft Lauderdale city sites on this, so I may have to call but wondered if anyone had a suggestion. 

Not everybody is cut out for college.While you are young and energetic I would suggest both investing and school at the same time.

This equation is pretty simple, in theory, how much additional rent can you get by upgrading versus keeping it in its current condition, divided by how much will it cost to upgrade?  

What do you guys suggest is the first step to entering this market and how do we find sponsors willing to invest with us?

Of course this does not work as does not count the remodeling added value which is the simple success key.That is good also for investors you could advice: I would plan a joint venture with them participating to the profit on a certain % (instead of asking a fee upfront), so you would remain with a % of a stable return, while your investor could finance back the money from the property and start over again.

Seems like a very simple transaction but becomes complicated because we are in two different states.

I suggest you use around 10K to 15K to get a hard money loan set up at 100 percent funding (no money down) to renovate a property and then rent it out- but do not target making just enough to pay the mortgage.

It’s too much to put in a simple post on here but if you want to learn and get good at it, you can take some appraisal classes.