In FL, a pool is a must and a south facing lot seems preferred for more sunlight. 

It all comes down to personal preference and what your investment goals are.

I was looking into a long term rental for my next purchase and wondering if something with an HOA (apartment or townhouse) would be preferable over a single family home.

Please be sure to select a Solo 401k plan provider which allows you to take a loan and will prepare the required 401k loan documents.The repayment terms are equal monthly/quarterly payments (as you prefer) of principal and interest (e.g. prime + 1%) spread over a 5 year term (or longer if you will use the loan to purchase your primary residence).There are no prepayment penalties and no restrictions on what you can do with the proceeds of the 401k loan.Please note that you are obligated to pay back their 401k (regardless of the performance of your real estate investment).As an alternative to taking the loan, you could even purchase the investment property directly using funds in your Solo 401k (assuming you select a Solo 401k plan provider which allows you to invest in real estate).

@Reagan Huefner, Chase Sapphire Preferred is offering 80,000 bonus points (equivalent to $800 cash or $1,000 travel) on $4K spent in first 3 months right now.  

An amount that you would prefer not to use, but would be ok using if need be. 

Not preferred customer discount necessarily, but not at all out of line.

Who prefers Section 8?

I would prefer to pay everything back in the end, but everyone has their own philosophy. 

We prefer NOT to move and I also prefer not to do anything that involves my own income or credit at this point.