I find that surprising and wondering how that is possible.As someone with a full-time W2 job who is a limited partner in a real estate syndication with less than 1% share and does not satisfy any material particiapation criteria, I would have expected the loss to be passive.

I'm an investor in the making, I'm trying to build my marketing materials and I'm having a hard time thinking of what to put on my credibility packet. 

Capital expenditures include material and labor, but does not include your own labor.

Site selection, estimating/detailed budgeting, all labor/material/soft costs are an open book with no markup/GC fee, and i own all site management from groundbreaking to closing.- Total cost of these projects would range between $390k-$550K.

Then, in the next, say that there is no material difference between the two for cash value and death benefit.

To start look on home dept and you can price out counters sinks flooring etc to get an idea of materials. 

Buy your Own MaterialsThe hot tip for the week is: Buy your materials / supplies, especially for high-priced /large / single items.

Also, they have limited and low quality products that you choose from for materials such as flooring  bathtubs, and lighting, etc.

You might try wholesaling, but even that is not going to be fast - find a wholesaler, go work for him for free for a couple months, soak all the knowledge you can meanwhile and read all the material you can get from internet, BP, Amazon books on the subject.

Look at new construction triplex/duplex condo sales in the heights areas, subtract carrying cost over build timeline, materials, labor and construction costs, what their desired profit in heights deals would be and that would leave you with approximate acquisition cost of the lot.