Good to know your opinion on those markets, too - they feel relatively outside of the core, but I hear what you're saying. 

@May Emery I was doing direct mail for High equity in my area but I learned that my area has relatively well educated higher net worth individuals who don't sell at discounts.  

You can liquidate in the future relatively easily and use that in real estate.

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

I think it's a relatively safe bet, given the current market value, expected population growth, etc.

I left the Navy last fall and my wife is still active duty here in Jax so if you have any questions, I can relate to your situation.

Local neighborhood and good deal given the relative lack of flooding.

All of those boxes should be checked to get you confortable with relatively safe, stable first investment for you as you become acclimated to the business. 

I like most things about the DST, except the relatively high load charges to get out of my stuff and even more so into the DST. 

Do you have any related skills to fix and flipping or are you just going to be hiring it out?