The situation would be that my parents own a rental property and we would be 'acting' as property managers for it, so profit wise, we would get a % of profit from the monthly rental income (also are there any restrictions within an LLC in this context as far as what that % can be?)

The owner had bought at the height of the boom and had operated it at a loss since then.

Here in Louisville most of the restrictions do not apply to owner occupied short term rentals.

@Karl Sperl Something to keep in mind - Savannah has a lot of restrictions when it comes to Airbnb.

Whereas I cannot help with this problem, when I owned properties in Puyallup, we never had this kind of restriction. 

We were also then forced into a narrow box of room sizes and ceiling heights with a modular unit.

Once you see a piece of land attractive to you, call sellers and ask all the questions you have as they may already have the answers (for example: which municipalities you have to go for permitting, how much of the land is buildable, any restrictions, etc...).Once that is done, go to the building department and share with them your plans to build and what will be required from you to make your vision come true.

I have taken a course of mobile home investing and they made it very clear to stay away from investing in a Mobile home in an age restricted park (55+).

Once you know the down payment and expected closing costs you can work backwards to see the amount of property you can afford.Condos are a nice place to get your feet wet in REI since a lot of the big expenses that you may incur are wrapped up in the HOA fee you pay every month vs Multifamily were you need real reserves and you are liable for all repairs.Also, you need to address possible restrictions in these 55+ communities in regards to purchasing and renting.

A couple things you would want to investigate further are the zoning (if duplexes are allowed), how utilities are setup (individually or separately metered), and any other restrictions on long term / short term rentals.