The long term price trajectory will partly depend on whether the sargassum issue can be contained or whether it gets worse and on how much overbuilding eventually takes place.If you want to be in a resort, the resort is more important than the location in my opinion.

You have to put all this cash out and then wait to fill the spaces they don't fill over night and so you severely negative cash flow for the lease up which can take years depending on the amount of spaces..

It depends on where your net worth stands (not that you should share that here).

The short answer is it depends!

Depends on how your utility company works. 

You can certainly charge more than if it were unfurnished, but how much just depends on the area, home and comparative rents.

It all depends on your perspective of the economy.

I believe there could be other benefits and reasons to use a hard money lender such as transactional ease (depending on lender) or perhaps even as a way of opening doors for borrowers who may not qualify for bank financing.

It truly depends on what he is looking to do.

I would say the first step is a survey, maybe geotech depending on the lot and your area's requirements, and then contact a local architect that you like the work of and feel you would enjoy working with!