An appraisal fee in advance for an actual appraisal is legitimate, but you can find lenders that don't require appraisals and don't charge appraisal fees.

But I noted that places like North Tonawanda as @Pravit Jarriyapurttipong mentioned are actually outside of Erie County, it's in Niagara County, which follows the stricter landlord laws as New York State... https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/changes-in-nys-rent-la...Would you recommend sticking to Erie County boundaries for this purpose?

The equity is actually what you are paying for the property.In this case let's look at the numbers that count,...the current numbers.You have about $500k or more in equity, which is buying you a property that's worth about $700k (I went with the lower PV. 

My recommendation is to have someone put in excel and show you the actual numbers.

After more than 450 deals, everything just seems to fall in place, abundance of leads and lenders throwing money at me.I actually believe this is possible for a lot of people in our industry.

We've actually previously had two potential buyers come forth, one w/ $20k & one w/ $30k - unsolicited offers that we let get away before we even considered owner financing (or knew what it entailed).

2) How much do you actually know about construction?

I actually aim for not having any one real estate investment make up more than 1% of my net worth.

Our lender has informed us that we need 12 months of rental history to use the actual rent for financing purposes, or we must rely on the appraiser's fair market short term rental value.

We're actually looking in Hagerstown, MD; Erie and Pittsburgh, PA.