In my market the jump from a 2 to 3 is a big one, 3 to 4 not so much.

However, this comes with more responsibilities, so it’s great that you’re open to being hands-on.Given your interest in making this investment potentially your full-time job, I’d recommend starting with a clear plan.

I'm trying to verify if this is correct and if so, how much more expensive (ballpark) can the one without standard exceptions be?  

so most of of us on BP should be OK...

I’m looking for residential multi-family’s in the the Tampa Bay Area, so that includes mostly all surrounding cities.  

I have a gutted carriage house on the back of my property, so my thought is to get my feet wet with house hacking by creating space for a longterm tenant. 

Some markets are so saturated a house may bring in more as a LTR than an STR.

We wouldn't have to dive too deep and could issue you a preliminary term sheet pretty quickly, so you know what you're possibly looking at. 

You mention 1031 so I will say: in a 1031 you never hold the proceeds from the sale in your own account, that would violate the rules of the 1031 

why do general contractors suck so bad?