Of course you can do what you want, but there's a good chance it will not go as planned, and either you or the tenant will not be happy.If those decks are due for a refinish, and the refinishing is pretty easy, who don't you send a handyman over there to do it, or go over there yourself if you're a more active sort of landlord?

Do you have a favorite bank in town, and if so, why? 

If you are a troglodyte and simply say "um" & grunt now and then, you probably won't like being an "active" investor.

Those are some of my favorite types of deals too, I do prefer to buy the ones with MAJOR problems as they tend to yield the most return while taking the smallest amount of effort to acquire.What part of town is your "niche"?

I refer you to Florida Statues 475.42 and 475.43 and the following URLs. https://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/regulatory/unlicensed-practice-of-real-estate.html https://swflreia.com/2016/01/19/unlicensed-real-estate-activity-florida/ I have been a Real Estate Investor, since 1998.

I am active in the same areas you are looking.

And when mixed with the power of compounding, real wealth can be generated from a relatively modest investment.The real return on real estate is not always easy to see, which is perhaps why investors do not pursue it as actively as investments in equities or fixed-income instruments.

are all lawsuit bait.BE AWARE - the state employs “testers” who actively try to trap landlords, lenders and others into making discriminatory statements or taking discriminatory actions. 

Setting up an LLC and keeping an LLC active costs money, not a ton, but it costs money.

But In this case he is moving his property after the deal closes and the likelihood of a due on sale clause being activated is anyone’s guess (I’m not going to speculate on that) but if you listen to @Scott Smith on podcast 109 he points out a lot of reasons as to why a LLC is way better protection vs. just an umbrella policy if set up and ran correctly.