Typically I spend every waking hour driving the city. 

Our loans are typically short term, structured as bridge to get the borrower from Point A to Point B.

If you can, do most banks allow you to refinance straight away or is there typically a holding period?

Typically, you have 4 years to supplement a claim in Florida.

Are banks open to short sales and if so what are the typical LTV’s today?

If you want to estimate the soil type for the area without involving an engineering firm, look up the SC USDA maps for typical soil types in your area. 

Also, with rehab lenders, you typically end-up being able to borrow over 100% of the property's as-is value.

Each of my properties provides me $2,000,000 in liability damage, plus loss of use Income, and the usual coverage for typical stuff.

I'm most familiar with the South Hills and typically look there, but would like to branch out into East Pgh as well, as I work in Bakery Square now and the surrounding area is changing quickly.Smaller updated SFR in decent neighborhoods are in really high demand right now - selling in a day or two with multiple offers over asking - just sold one in September in 2 days, multiple offers up to 15K over asking.  

You typically don't want to invest money that would cause a major impact to your financial life.