Quote from @Matt Weddon: Really what generated this question was a section from Brandon and Heather Turner's Management Book, which has been incredibly informative and helpful.

Another great property management starter book was Landlording on Autopilot - Mike Butler.

Does anyone know, or have a good idea, about the difference in returns on entitling & developing the land for each scenario, with final objective to sell to a builder to build and sell the structures him/herself.  

But the one of the add on was a website a book, etc.

At that point I dont know investing would make any sense, I have heard scary stories I was thinking about short term rentals but that needs constant cleaning after guests and conpetition is very high my friend spent almost 200k out of pockets to buy a property for airbnb and he got 17 bookings per year....

So now I'm faced with the potential of loosing EVERYTHING job, house, car, wife...Finally I stopped focusing on what was wrong and focused on the solutions. 

If you read Brian's informative book, you will learn that he finds integrity to be #1.

And in states that allow deposits and then settle up competition is higher as the price of entry is so low 5 to 20k deposits to bid.. now if you dont finalize you lose the money and can be fined as its illegal to bid and not close.

Then you can read a more in-depth book like The Book On Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner or The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Spencer Strauss.2.

Finally, network with other investors and start small to gain experience.