With over 60 miles of beaches, there are many types of investments you could pursue from efficiency condos/hotel type rooms under $100,000 to multimillion homes.

The majority of lenders require a 6 months seasoning period.

I'd go for the option that gets you as much cash out of the deal as possible to redeploy into subsequent deals tax efficiently.

For a long time this was not the preferred way because of the short holding period. 

You can bet on your tenants being in place over the next year and that cash flow coming in over that 1 year lease, but you can't be sure how the stock market is going to perform over that same time period. 

You will have to intend to live in it for a period of time over the year.. but the rental income that you mentioned to them will most likely make them say it will need to be reclassified as investment home.FYI- loan level pricing adjustments on second homes are changing April 1st this year which means rates are going to go up on a second home (pretty dramatically actually).

My advice is to make some offers and use your brother and the due diligence period to make your final decision. 

During your due diligence period you should be able to request that the seller provide a trailing 12 month breakdown of the expensesAlso, 30yr fixed is a great product as many mentioned... my thought is, take the lower payment, then if you want to pay it off faster you have the option.

Working through my identification period on my 1031 exchange.  

Id say look for honesty and efficiency as the most important characteristics.