The interest rate isn’t the bigger issue.  

I want to get rid of my older ones due to being in an HOA or other issues that are not ideal.

You can be well diversified with real estate: single family rentals, investing in trust deed, investing in multi-family, industrial, ground up development, mobile home parks, RV parks via syndication or crowdfunding platforms and much more.

Never seen any talk or research on this, but seems like kids might do better in school if the school is newer and in good repair and things work vs those that leak and fight temperature control and other issues.

The expectations are they pay on time and treat my unit right and their expectations of me are I address issues in a timely manner, give them a great place to live and treat them with respect.

Roatan, being in the Caribbean, has the same issue with sargassum as the Riviera Maya or the Dominican Republic.

Bikes from a bike shop will be more expensive but they will be assembled correctly and will have fewer issues.  

Also, if the structure does not sit on a structurally sufficient foundation it is personal property - like a mobile home - rather than real property. 

They reached out to me weekly for the first couple of years with issues based on their incompetence (I was happy to help, to a point, but it got old), and the purchasing company lost close to all the doors in the first 5 years due to poor service, poor systems, and not really understanding how to add value to the client.  

We did this with our property and had no issues with our bank.