You won't make as much, but you split your risk and you can get your feet wet without as much anxiety.

Make sure you choose a sealed battery (which is virtually maintenance-free) vs. wet battery (which require periodic refill of distilled water).

I was thinking of looking in St Thomas as well as I’m sure you know the prices in London are extremely high and it will be quite tough to meet the 1% rule at this time but I’m hoping the agent I have recently connected with (that claims she specializes in off market multi’s and works with investors) will be able to help me find something to help get my feet wet and hopefully be cash flow positive even a bit off the get go.

They will be coming in from the beach, wet and sandy. 

You do have to wet the ceiling down first - spray bottle of water.

Do you guys find that the time savings of wet-scraping makes up for those issues?

You need to keep an area wet ahead of where you are working to make things easier.

Option 3 is extremely hard to do because this popcorn ceiling has been painted, making it very difficult to scrape off even after wetting it down thoroughly.

However it is a good market to get your feet wet wet with investing.

House hacking is quite an easy way to get your feet wet and will teach you plenty about owning as well as having a rental property and how to manage and market it well.