I would find a loan officer that does both conventional and FHA renovation loans to compare which has better rates and terms for your situation.

Rent would probably be a short term nightly basis. 

@Martin Manning To add onto what others have shared, in the most simplistic terms, apartment complex values are based on Net Operating Income, or NOI, and the cap rate.Price = NOI / Cap RateSo, if an apartment complex has an NOI of $100,000 and a market cap rate of 10%, the value is $1,000,000.Listing agents for complexes love to price based on a pro-forma, which is utter nonsense (unless you're in Austin, in which case apartment complexes apparently have floors made of gold).

We have a somewhat specific wishlist for lending requirements and terms that I will highlight below.

In terms of using home equity, you would either have to take out the money using a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or you could do a cash-out refinance.

I have contacts for long and short term managers in the Tampa/ St Pete/ Lakeland area. 

With only having 5 properties and them all being long term buy and hold we have found this to be very manageable. 

We don't reach that point until we have had the opportunity to understand what an investor wants, their motivations, long-term goals, and risk profile.  

I plan to stay in this general area for at least the next 20 years and think buying real estate would be a great way to diversify my investment portfolio.So in almost any scenario you will come ahead buying vs renting over twenty years probably well less than half of that, but the investment you are making is a long term investment you probably won’t be able to leave after a year or two and rent for more than your mortgage, I’d really think about where you want to live medium-long term, than any investment metric, because the longer you stay the better the investment looks, and if you can move out sooner great, but I’d guess at minimum you’d have to stay 5 years before rents would catch up to your mortgage. 

Quote from @Steve Schrag: The term "eviction" can mean many things.