I had grown very close to him and had developed a great deal of trust for this person.

Also, real builders/experienced developers will often have a true technician, i.e. a civil engineer, architect, real estate attorney et al at least glance at the property info to make sure there are no major red flags.

Understand your area some; how is inventory, how is DOM, what is sale to list price?

I will say that some of the listing prices and projected rents seem high when comparing against my own research.

Punch List: Accounts for any punch list items involved. 

When you do a traditional 1031 exchange you have 45 day identification period, to provide a list of potential replacement properties and 180 days to close on a replacement.

There are definitely some municipalities that are easier to get along with than others, but all are open to development.

@Jonathan Chan Here is a list of allowable assets for SDIRA investing. 

There are several things to fear money loss on a bad investment, government involvement in RE, bad tenants that cost time and money, hidden maintenance issues and/or land issues and the list can go on.Today, I don't fear money loss or tenants,  the big unknown is how much the government wants to get involved in either taxes or landlord/tenant issues.

There are also a lot of agents who tend to get pocket listings or know before a property hits MLS.