You just gave us all your 'elevator pitch' here so I would just have that prepped and ready to go if you come across anyone giving you grief on your age. 

You broad brush an entire profession - except of course, yourself.This pathetic attempt to elevate yourself by belittling others is such an immature rookie move that it's hard to believe that you did it sober.  

“Natiivo fills a gap in the hospitality landscape by combining an elevated, professionally-hosted experience, great design and cutting-edge technology with the service, security and consistency of a great hotel,” said Harvey Hernandez, founder and CEO of NGD Homesharing.

I have come up with a list of skills that I feel would be a great help to the renovation process:3D Modeling/Building Measurements-With a 3D model you can get accurate floor plans, elevations and 3D views of the buildingTest Fit Layouts-Once the 3D model is built, multiple layouts can be created and analyzed-Potential problems can be solved before they are builtMaterial Calculation/Cost-When the design is finalized, square footages and materials can be calculated based off of the modelVisualization Renderings-You get imagery of the building/spaces before construction moves forward-There is a reference during construction Construction Documentation-Specific details can be drawn and dimensioned Staging-A house with furniture better shows the potential of the space Architectural Photography-People want nice pictures that actually show the space and they want a lot of themI would appreciate your feedback on this. 

Typically in situations such as this, an elevation certificate (or something similar) can be obtained to show that the dwelling itself is not in the flood zone, but that simply a portion of the property is. 

Transition board will hide the elevation difference.

If you have to change the elevation of the land to build on it you will probably have to remove the trees, anyway.

For example an Elevator.

One concern is that parking requirements, not the headline density limit, may ultimately be what limits your project's scope.I've recommended this elsewhere, but page 20 of this book has a clever design for a 4-unit + live/work, whose construction can be financed with a single-close conforming residential mortgage. http://www.cneinc.org/missingmiddleNote that there's residential on the back of the ground floor; some zoning codes don't like this, but without it you'll have to build an elevator, which raises costs substantially.

It also has an elevator that hasn't been working for decades.