Based on the rental estimates, we would net about $700 a month in surplus income since our mortgage is pretty inexpensive.I'm looking to get any and all opinions as I want to make the correct choice for us and also want to make sure I don't screw anything up if we do decide to choose option 2. 

Hey Nick 👋 although I’m not an expert on both markets - based on your goal being appreciation another factor you may want to look at is migration trends.Redfin posts data on migration trends by city.

I am a buy and hold investor in Florida looking for an asset based lender to refinance a Condo .

Don't spend forever searching for under value.

I also know that a duplex, while slower, is the safer, more conservative approach and on my single income.Either way, for the second property, said another way its like small steps every 16 months or bigger steps at 32 months based on my current saving rate.

I would anticipate a primarily residential to be there, but primarily commercial might be around mid-9s to sniffing 10, based on where the 10-year is and how it would cash-flow

Long term rates already have a .75 BPS to 100 BPS increase in margin spread do to risk, that will come off the table soon and lower rates just based off that and that would put my 30 year fixed rate in the 5.25% to 5.5% ish range. 

I don't have as much info as the lender that pre-approved you, but based on the info you've provided and assuming you have decent credit, there's a good chance you can get that rate closer to 6%.

In fact, although Furnished Finders has historically catered to travel nurses, searches by non-medical professionals now exceeds that of medical professionals, so the market is really changing.

I did a search here on BP first but came up short.Thanks all.