What me and my buyers are doing in that area is pretty simple and has some degree of success to it.

Animals for the most part are not controllable at some degree, a great dog/cat can bite playing around so how do you protect yourself from lawsuits?. 

One advantage of CPVC is that can take hotter water than PEX but above 140 degrees where PEX fails you are likely to have scalding anyway. 

It will get you acclimated to home ownership to a degree…and if you’re in the right area you’ll be able to get a nice return on the rental on the backend.  

I have graphic design/marketing skills (current job) and interior design skills (Interior Architecture degree and former stager).

I’m not sure what you and your partner’s financial situation and credit history look like, but you can use private credit and hard money loans, borrow from family if that is an option, leverage from your own financial resources, bring in other equity partners and JV to some degree on each project, etc.  

Find a PM that will increase your tenant quality, manage to the lease to the 'nth' degree, and minimize disruptions/interruptions to your cash flow.  

In terms of land mass Jacksonville is the largest city in the entire US, so since the market area is quite large, most agents specialize to some degree.

I get it a lot of people want to learn from other's mistakes, you can to some degree. but the one that pushs you close to the edge, you can only learn it from yourself.

The trend was always that people did not want to get a better job, a college degree and career or simply make more money bc the section 8 managers would adjust the price… It was the dumbest decision that you could make: stay in a low paying job or choose to not make more money because you would have to pay more in rent or leave the projects all together…  The year I graduated from CSUN I landed a teaching job and was “forced” to leave and go rent on my own (and went from $300 per month to $1200 per month) which was a huge jump for me… That forced me to need to make more money, to seek out better paying jobs and to have the motivation to do better and grow.