His long term tenant recently moved out and is about to rent it to his adult son, who will be paying him enough to cover the monthly expenses.  

A few I found some information about (mainly to stay away from them as they changed the rates/terms at the last minute), and one had a bunch of fake reviews on the BBB site, but the others I cannot find any information about as far as customer satisfaction.

My main question is…i know i pay a deposit and we have an agreed upon term.

There are way better options in Florida where prices are dwindling and things are beginning to sit on the market, but the market still supports short-term or mid-term rentals.

If issues come up I could non renew at any time and this would give me greater leverage if things were to deteriorate further, it isn't like you are worried they will leave with no long term lease.  

Not sure how long the commute would be exactly but sometimes you have to sacrifice some comforts for long term goals.

I need to open two checking accounts for a couple of SDIRAs and discussing commercial RE loan terms. 

Make sure you are asking about all the terms - the maturity date, the adjustment period, the costs, etc.  

However, I discovered that Anaheim isn't allowing new short-term rentals and that the strict regulations in California make arbitrage nearly impossible.I then came across the assignment of contracts strategy and thought it could be a good way to generate income.

I’ve flipped in the dc area for years, right now there is just money & in the vast majority of cases there is high likelihood of losing money, right now the best investments in the area imo are buy & hold, I’ve even gone full circle and while I really liked value add for most of the last decade I think in a lot of ways new construction especially in more affordable markets (I’m personally a big fan of the eastern shore market) is a much better way to make money long term than flipping and brrring while I know they are sexy & certainly you getting a huge paycheck is great, there just isn’t any money in it right now, especially in nova.