Genuinely appreciate you sharing - a rising tide raises all ships. 

Do we think the price of homes will continue to rise in South Florida for at least the next 5 years?

It all depends on how quickly you think rates could rise between now and 5 years and between yrs 5 and 7.  

Buying properties in cash while you can is always a great option if you are of the belief that any debt is bad debt, but I believe with interest rates being at historic lows it may make more sense to leverage that money as much as possible while rates are low before the market adjusts and we begin to see those rates shoot back up.This is just speculation of course, but I would not be surprised if interest rates rise significantly over the course of the next year, but that is just my personal opinion.

Its hard to imagine in Canada that this happens at all right now as prices are rising way beyond rents are.If you plan on holding it long term then I dont see why not.

Short of all that, you can hire a contractor to relocate the temperature controls to an inconspicuous location and disconnect the current control to become non-functional.

I guess the main question is say the tax assessed value on a property I'm looking at is significantly below my purchase price, do I assume the new assessed value will rise to the purchase price?

Next time, we'll check inside temperature every day.

The outlook for 2021 is similar to 2020 and teh prices will continue to rise.

I expected prices to not rise as fast during pandemic because many wouldn't be paying rent and overextended landlords might need to unload property to cover, but boy was I wrong.