Home prices are high here so I'm really leaning towards investing out of state or in a different part of Florida to create cash flow vs. buying a personal residence and starting my savings over from scratch to invest.Don't get me wrong, I really want to buy a place of my own that I can live in but the math is making a bit more sense to me if I invest first.

If the seller only offers 1% and you have signed the form stating you are willing to pay 3, then you will make up the difference (2%).

There is a difference between "best" and "lower cost". 

So the question becomes, because these are very low end estimations (I like to do worst case scenario numbers to ensure I don't over leverage) if the house would appraise for 230 and we could get 75% LTV would that make a big enough difference to make it work?

Speak to your attorney about the difference between an Operating Agreement and a JV agreement.

It depends on a lot of different factors! 

Different licenses.

This is no different. 

A thorough inspection is crucial and understand the difference between maintenance and bigger capital expenditures (capex) that you will need to save for. 

Depending on the part of the lake there will be different permitting process.