Starting without a solid employment income is a recipe for failure.

The most important part of the process is establishing a solid ARV based on recently sold comps. 

Instead of saving for down payments, I'm saving for renovation budgets, I guess, but it's still very limiting.I'm bankable and have a pretty solid foundation of understanding of how all of this works, with a handful of rentals in place and a handful of flips under my belt.

Choose a lender that closes on time, so that you don't waste money on an appraisal you can't use.

I will look at lower income neighborhoods if the return is strong, and it's a solid rental neighborhood.

I’m in a fast moving market.If I post ads 30+ days before availability I don’t get as many and/or only calls from people who have to move within 2 weeks or people who are constantly looking for that perfect apt with no real plans of moving and waste a lot of time. 2 weeks before vacancy is when I post ads.

You seem to have a very solid plan of action as evidenced by your post.What I did when starting out (and what I do now) is send out blind offers to owners directly. 

Account Closed, If you don't have any information about financial performance of a property, you're wasting your time trying to underwrite it.

Boynton Beach has changed so much over the last decade and only continues to improve.If you can find solid deals in desirable areas then yes I would definitely consider them.

4 months of rent wasted and then STILL believing a person at their word that they will leave with out ruining anything or deciding they want another 4 months rent free?