There were simply too many things about this particular one I do not like so I’m staying away.

Without understanding what you want to accomplish, it can be difficult to determine the best course of action.  

If you plan to do multifamily in the "Far" suburbs it can be harder to hit your cashflow targets VS city/near burbs simply because there is limited inventory. 

But once you see that $16,000 of the $20,000 are prepaid homeowners’ insurance and property taxes (that you'll be writing a check for shortly anyway), you determine that the actual one-time closing cost is only $4000.

A good agent will ask about your ROI & cashflow, then help you work backwards to determine an offer price to make your numbers work.

A deal that produced a 25% net IRR to investors with a 1% acquisition fee, 1% asset management fee, simply pref + single tier waterfall, etc, may only produce a 15% net IRR under the current fee and carry structure, if their acq fee went to 3%, pref went down, they now have a GP catchup and multi-tier waterfall giving them higher splits for higher returns, etc.

They’re simply projecting their own incompetence onto you.

I imagine there may be steps to take with the city upfront to determine if in fact the ground on the lot can be built on, but some general guidance or tips on best place to start and what to expect throughout the new construction process in Buffalo.

So if I had to pick just 1 thing as "the" biggest thing in Commercial space to monitor for determining biggest impactors to market prices for MFH, without doubt it's COST OF CAPITAL. 

Whenever I speak to a group of students interested in real estate, I always stress the importance of networking and simply asking people to coffee.