I have an uncle who has been flipping houses for a few years (who is my mentor) and a cousin who works with him and partners on deals occasionally. 

That model gets examined, and occasionally revised, on a daily basis.

I grew up in Niceville, 5 minutes from Destin, and remember well the havoc that a hurricanes caused the tourist economy once every 5 to 10 years (not to mention the occasional oil spill... actually, a lot of people got pretty big payouts from BP by essentially submitting a crayon drawing on a paper plate-- a lady I know was paid about 25K for "lost business wages."

We emailed, called occasionally, and drove to their office if no replies for days.

The cabins still get the occasional travelling worker, but they usually stay there one week then move into one of my places. 

I have occasionally brought along my carpenter, electrician and {once} my plumber to property walkthroughs before we have a contract or LoI in-place.This usually occurs with vacant properties (REOs, estates, etc) which are going to need a lot of work.  

I'm a RE agent who occasionally does some leasing for some quick and easy money.

Despite the occasional news reports of snow and blizzards the weather is generally great here.

Occasionally I will have someone ask for a significant reduction, utilities included, etc...

HI Susan,Most of the investors I work with use 30 year fixed when it comes to residential buy and hold loans and some do utilize interest only but only subject a portion of their portfolio to the interest only ARM's while keeping the rest principal and interest.The issue comes up more when the borrower has maxed out on the 10 financed properties with Fannie may so after that we use portfolio financing from local banks but those are mostly principal and interest ARM's or interest only ARM's with balloon payments at the end.My first time buyers and second home/vacation home buyers usually use 30 year fixed with an occasional 5/1, 7/1 ARM if they are on job assignment or contract work for a defined period of time.