Lots of paperwork, and time with you local gov to get something like that done I would imagine.

Surprisingly, this decision has led to building an Arbitrage business generating much more cash flow than I had imagined.

All was cut/ripped out and, I imagine sold for scrap to support someone's habit. 

He and his dad built it, so if you have some imagination and skills, you can DIY.I would go on one of the booking sites and look at what others have done and get some inspiration.

I’d imagine experimenting with some texture could really make it look amazing.

Imagine you only have 20-Years on the property.

We can all sit on our high horses and say "that's not the right way" but Imagine sitting on a project for a month not being able to do absolutely anything, paying 15% interest while you wait for the city to get to you. 

Imagine the 2nd property is a 4plex, each unit can be rented $1500/unit of 75% =$1125 x 4 units =$4500 worth of income to offset your that 2nd property.

I imagined this place is for people to share knowledge and connect and that is what I attempted to do so. 

In a similar fashion, if you can imagine how much landscaping and underground infrastructure is in a golf course as compared to the clubhouse, that will give an indication of why an extremely high percentage of the property's value is allocated to the land improvements.