I understand the pros and cons, and I'm leaning towards composite due to low maintenance but second guessing it because of costs and all the complaints online about it (hot, slippery, unreliable [trex], etc).

You've given me some peace on the benefits of leaning towards being conservative with the numbers. 

School has been an amazing experience and I have done very well, but with the pandemic threatening to put classes online, I am leaning towards taking a gap year.

Zillow shows rental estimate of 995/month. i may be wrong but when i try to calculate things to guesstimate expenses and such i try to lean on the higher side of percentages that i hear people talking about. so i caluted at 950 for rent. then for expenses im coming up with about 835 a month only leaving 115 for cash flow every month (after refinance)  i have trouble with a couple of factors though, mainly repairs and capex obviously something needs to be held back here every month because it will happen, but everything will be brand new so risk of anything major such as roof, hvac, plumbing, electrical should be extremely low. 

But, then they wouldn't be very close to each other, which is convenient for management.The great thing about HCOL areas is that you end up with large loans, so when interest rates drop, you can truly capitalize upon refinancing.

I am definitely leaning towards house hacking, but I've been reading more on BRRRR and it seems like such a great concept to build your RE portfolio. 

I leaned in his direction and sniffed. 

I have no issue with investing in an area I have no ties in but I believe in an industry based on the physical property, it would make sense to be able to conveniently (when I visit my family) visit the property to make sure things are on track. 

However, it looks like the latest big increase is now an employer tax (conveniently exempting govt employers) so maybe polling is showing that owners are getting tired of bonds?

Leaning more towards Colorado area lead me to researching that the Florida real estate license does not count for that state.