The amount of equity is less than what most investors prefer.

Planning on searching for our first STR, preferably a vacation/beach area.

I do some flipping myself so in my wholesale I try to be as close as I can on my estimated rehab numbers but every investor does things how the prefer so I learned to let them take my number and decide if it fit for them or not

Rentometer is fairly good and free for first couple. 

A couple of great books on No/Low Money Down and Creative financing are below.The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down - Audio BookWealth Without Cash - Audio BookHope these help you as much as they've helped me!

Keep and rent out, use new rent to help pay newer larger mortgage - thus expanding my real estate portfolio and then 1031 after a couple years.2.

Any operators here that has experience using a funding company that does JV/Preferred Equity to fill out their capital stack?

When you're just looking to start investing but don't have unlimited capital, I've seen a not-so-common but very successful method of scanning small town, seasonal, or rural markets (off-market preferred) that have older homes needing an easy facelift.

I have a piece of land I've been holding on to for a couple years outside Tampa that would be great for BTR multifamily if only we could address the wetland issues.

There are a couple of great books in the BP bookstore on being an agent.2.