I own a piece of land that is worth $245,000 and is in a VERY desirable part of the city.

In fact there is absolutely nothing wrong with the above described technique as long as it's fully disclosed and UNDERSTOOD by all parties.John is "disgraced" because he got involved as front man with a Salt Lake City real estate marketing firm that promoted John all over late Nate TV back around 1998 - 2003.  

You aren't "dead in the water" by any means.However, there's a piece here we don't know - how much do you owe on the property?  

I’m building my first rental property on a piece of raw land I recently bought under my name.

If the home is attached to a piece of property you could lien the property and the attached home. 

Most newbies wouldn't consider Germantown years ago, and then everyone wanted a piece of it. 

Even if the said Reno’s are as small as a few pieces of trim and some missing soffit? 

The RV sites do very well on Hipcamp but it does take a bit of effort to promote it and get attention brought to them.  

In some cases it may cost a vendor half as much to work with Roofstock as opposed to other promotional companies.

I just finished Brandon Turner's book on rental properties, and plan to continue to read more.I understand that Norada is a promoter, and prefer that given that they are agnostic in how they recommend properties.