You don't want to run yourself too thin, capital preservation is always #1 imo.

There are restoration/preservation grants for historic buildings.

Today I sat down with the office's Senior Historic Preservation Planner. 

I think that for the 2018 legislative session, the issues of the overbids and the preservation improvements inherent in the current system were a top priority. 

My best advice would be  to reach out to the Historic Preservation office of the area your interested in.

if so, i'd say it makes no sense for me personally (although it may for someone else) - if i were a pension fund, i'd be willing to accept a lower cap for A grade property since i'm just trying to preserve capital, but for me, lower cap means lower return and i'm in growth mode not preservation mode. 

I know the tax redemption is allowed, and I'm fairly sure I can put the outside clean-up onto the note (because of the insurance mandate as well as "preserving the property" wordage in the original note) but I need to do some more research about what parts of the rehab would fall under that umbrella.

Are you looking to take a bit more risk and build wealth or are you looking for something stabilized to preserve wealth?

I do like to buy in the area classified by the zone but not part of the preservation society.

I guess if you buy cash then the negative cash flow from property taxes / minimal utilities / insurance isn’t too bad...especially if you are mainly holding to preserve wealth.