Drive your neighborhoods to identify properties that are vacant or distressed.  

A duplex and a vacation rental in FL would be fine.From the close of your sale you have 45 days to identify those potential purchases.  

DP: Well first, you have to identify the gaps in traditional insurance coverages to see if there is even a need for a specialty product.With vacation rental properties, owners historically have had three options for insurance: Homeowner’s policyDP-3 landlord policy, orA hotel/motel business policy.

I understand there is a time limit of 45 days to identify 3 properties; and 180 days to close.

Rather than visit a mortgage broker, is there a way to identify lenders or the type of lender who will be able to approve?

A roof problem was identified during the inspection and now I might have to take care of it.

After you accept this fact, the next step is to identify what makes sense to do in your market.

Basically to start from nothing I have learned that my business needs to be set up as an LLC, has its own business address or virtual office, etc so that banks can identify me as being a business operation. 

Its a little more work but at the same time it can solve/identify problems before construction begins. 

Is there an identifiable problem that lead the previous owners to the 50% occupancy?