I have seen areas like Cleveland and Dayton with COC ranging from 10-18% and Columbus is around 8-12% with strong growth. 

We are open to using wholesalers and are looking to get plugged in to a wholesaler, realtors in the area, etc.We've been eyeing SFR ~3/2 in the <$250k range.

North Carolina has been on my list of states I’d love to invest in, but the only real area we’ve been able to find something within our range has been the Winston-Salem area, but we don’t know enough about it to figure out how successful we could be with rentals there. 

I am comfortable in that range personally. 

Comps of single-family homes suggest we are in the 2500-3200/mo range. 

I need all new appliances (Fridge, Microwave, Dishwasher, Sink, oven/range)I also need flooring (Tearing out carpet ..yes it's everywhere...yuck)Will also need to repaint and buy new LED lights for my fixtures. 

Just for kicks, i looked up a few sf properties sold last year and see that land ranged from 40% to 60% so without knowing your property specifics, dunno why your land would be assessed 70%all i can suggest is look at comparable sales and see what the ratio is and then appeal using that dataalso i remember many years ago, a home was assessed higher than the transaction amount and after failing to reach agreement with assessor office, the homeowner reached out to the different elected city reps.

If you qualify for a 600K 1-family, you should qualify for something in the 800-900K range in the Bronx.

I would like to use it as collateral to borrow 42k from a private lender, interest only payments in the 8-10% range for 12 months.

. - Rates are bound to take a nice dive before that time and you might be cuffed to the railroad tracks.