We are looking for first West Florida rental and would like to get established with a good property management company in advance of finding the right property.

@River West If it's of use to you, here are my observations on the local Gainesville market.

I found a SFR home in West Hollywood that is sandwiched between 2 multis and is zoned for 5 units and 9 units with some affordable housing.

We had a GREAT discussion on this at @Sergey Tkachev West Sac BP meet up a couple months back!

Joe, I picked Collier County 10 years ago , while coming from Germany . 

Personally, I'd recommend driving Charleston from the east side near Hollywood all the way to the west side and take the loop past Red Rock until it turns into Blue Diamond, then keep driving East on Blue Diamond.

The area to the East is fully developed (downtown St Pete), the area immediately to the West is mostly light industrial, and the area to the South is cut off by I-175 and Campbell Park (and has historically been a lower income/higher crime demographic).The Grand Central and Edge districts along Central Ave to the West are desirable areas and red hot as far as real estate investing goes, as are Historic Kenwood to the West, and the entire 4th St/16th St corridor to the north.

We personally are most interested in the Museum District, West U, Braes Heights, or Bellaire as my day job is at TMC but I'd love to hear stories from anyone.

If its not too far west I wouldn't mind stopping in

@James Shen I would recommend looking at the Heights in JC and possibly West Bergen-Lafayette as well at that price point.