Discussing your options with an advisor can help steer you into the right direction.

Many individual investors network to find great deals without needing to enlist/pay for a commission advisor to steer them into securities related RE syndications.

Hi.Reach out to Stephanie Jacobson on BP.She's an area broker and has never steered me wrong.     

My experience has been that as a new LLC/not part of a syndication, you will personally secure the obligation to a credited for the LLC anyway.In my mind, having the LLC makes you think of the rentals as a business-you need an accountant, legal team, property management decisions are more streamlined, and there is some pride in your own business, as well as those are the steps larger operators have as minimum requirements, and makes you ore credible at REIAs/networking events.There are a host of other factors that are constantly debated with strong, valid arguments on both sides, and I’ll steer clear of those to stay on topic to your post.

Rather than steering you towards a specific facility, I'd recommend looking into the Florida Panhandle, Kissimmee, Miami, and Tampa as viable areas.

Internal Revenue Code 453 aka DST NOT Delware BUT Deferred Sales Trust are a great way to avoid the warnings and everyone steering you towards 1031s during a rising market where you'll probably end up overpaying.But good luck finding someone with a track record of 453 DSTs.I'm looking/researching hard and you can start withbrett with capitalgainstaxsolutions.com on YouTubeHope this helps you save MILLIONS in taxesby providing wealth through TRUEpassive income :)

I guess my biggest question is how do I go about finding a really good deal if you all think I should steer clear of off market homes with it being my first project?

I don't want to steer my Client wrong, thank you. 

Any experience with any PM's in the area would be extremely helpful.b) I have a decent idea of what neighborhoods to steer clear of, but wanted to make sure that I'm not missing any.

I'm going to try and steer you back to productive dialogue here.Your posts come with some assumptions that some of us are confused by since they seem rather unusual for building mechanicals, so let's see if we can clarify some things.