What will it cost for cap ex, management (when you grow and want this), regular maintenance, taxes and insurance (if not in mortgage) vacancy allowance, eviction costs, turn around costs to make the units rerentable. 

I've read that one exception that allows someone to keep their VA Loan active and purchase another house is if you have a growing family.

These can happen at any city, county, state, or school district meeting.Maybe in an area that is slow moving and not growing extremely fast, it is different. 

Or stick them into some other investments and let it grow for the next few years while you house hack your first place.Making the move is the big part, enjoy the ride!

But I'm also not averse to being hands on initially, at least before I grow my portfolio. 

Your background and experience in construction will be incredibly beneficial to you as you grow as a real estate investor. 

FL in general gets hard because of high property taxes and insurance, and then in the more popular cities like Tampa, general price hikes. 

I’d love to be able to invest in, grow, and give back to the community that gave me so much growing up!

Louis market for fixers being from the area.Excited about the future and looking forward to growing some new networks.

The market in the town has been growing a lot in the last few years.