@Samantha Serenes - From an insurance point of view, I'm 99.9% sure this won't be covered by insurance because there's no resulting property damage, it's normal wear and tear as you stated above, and it doesn't sound like the damage is due to a covered cause of loss (fire, lightning, water damage, wind, hail, etc.). 

But, one needs to be able to ride out any ups/and downs that may occur during that timeline. 

The issue is that not all of my GCs are mentioning the joists and I'm trying to determine if I am being taken for a ride. 

PS - I survived the road to Hana - what a ride!

I don't want to be right on the beach (hurricanes too scary), but within a short bike ride of the beaches would be ideal.

The rep also does clean checks I think every three months to ensure the property is being well maintained.The only thing I would make sure you put in the contract is no bikes on the carpet as most missionaries ride bikes then store them inside so they do not get stolen and when they park them on carpet it can be a mess and a half. 

If the property values in your market soften, if the tenant moves in and destroys it, fire, earthquakes, floods, hail, hurricane, another lock down requires you to keep a non-paying tenant - honestly anything - and my position in the property is at jeopardy.

When an economic cycle goes down you are able to ride it out with out a lot of stressed out selling.Like Jay touched on is location, dam this is the simple still folks seem to ignore why?

If it's a pop up property that will be nicer than surrounding, probably nothing special on growth/appreciation. if the whole area is new and there is more new construction coming down the pipeline like a Publix, another subdivision and so on then yes you could take low cash flow and ride it out.I generally prefer properties with at least 10% cash roi out of the gate unless the area is about to pop off.

Lucky for us our drives are beautiful and not stressful at all, since we have no traffic, its like a joy ride - I listen to a LOT of podcasts and CSPAN!