Combine that with many areas being flooded with Airbnb's and the cash cow those had been starting to dry up.  

Water levels can get knee to mid thigh at times and dry up in the summer.

I’ll be ready to pull the trigger in about 8-10 months (want to pay off some miscellaneous debt first) by then I should have a better understanding of the market and be able to analyze deals.

Pull the trigger.

Clean, dull and dry is always the formula before you paint a surface.

And NO lender puts the loan proceeds directly into your account.. the funds are sent through an escrow either an attorney state escrow or an escrow in a state were the title and escrow company handles the funds. these things are just out there to scam those who are not really familar with how HML or private lending works.Glad you posted you wont lose your 1.5 %   once they get that in the door then they start hammering you for more money and more money until they bleed you dry and they never fund because they are NOT REAL .. thinks of all those scammers sitting in Bangladesh or other off shore areas.

However, the property manager I had lined up and selected has not answered any calls, emails or texts, leaving me high and dry.

Pull the trigger. 

Here in Maine, we try to keep EMD to $6,000 or less as that's the maximum allowed in Small Claims - and every state is different.It seems like a cut and dried case. 

They have it under the guise of “purchase protection”, but your tenant would need to physically click something to trigger it.