Looking for markets that are:-warm weather (no or limited snow shoveling)-low property taxes (we're comparing to Chicago so pretty much all markets have lower prop. tax)-landlord friendly-growing, young/hipIdeas?

What does it cost to get the lawn cut, get the snow plowed, walks shoveled?

Insurance quotes here in FL are coming in around $200/month for a basic 3/1 1100sq/ft house.

I spent many nights at that property pulling weeds until late in the night and fighting snow storms so I could shovel the walks. 

@Jim Groves  it was also driven by an almost inexhaustible inventory of shovel ready lots that were cheap and had no govmit restrictions to building along with GA and AL builders that came down and built huge amounts of spec homes that banks allowed to happen.. and then well we know the rest of the story..  

The units have been rented, but the land, shovel-ready for over 150 more units, has sat idle, like an old west ghost town.

And, the cyberspace is teaming up with all kinda information FREELY and READILY available, so why pay a fat cat to "teach" me yet down deep I know that if HE/SHE was successful he/she woulda never been teaching, he/she woulda been out in the field shoveling money left and right.

Unless you have a particular interest in learning a lot more about design, or have an innate flare for it, it's a bit specialized area.

@Kevin Phu if you want t move a mountain you start with one shovel at a time.

It has a flaring tool with expansion rings that slip over the fittings and shrink back down over to compress and seal.