That normally occurs when the prohibitive zoning is geared towards preservation and open area.  

An example would be that my market is predominately a SF rental market, duplexes are normally in lower end.  

I have about 10000 square feet that is currently empty on a listing I'm considering purchasing. I'm brainstorming ways that I can most effectively use this empty space... The lot is zoned as R2 and currently only has ...

You paid $266 per square foot.

Regarding the one month of rent Placement Fee, this is fairly normal.

👀I never even drove past the place, much less set foot in it.  

You can't shoot from the hip, you will shoot your foot off.Let's pretend you get by the first step, your asset checks out in the appraisal process. 

It's also common to encounter retail branch employees who are  not familiar with  the entities and various ownership structures real estate investors utilize since they are normally opening personal bank accounts.

I've typically been doing the foot work.

Instantly I can tell the hottest markets from the normal and cold ones, and separately determine which one's I am priced out of due to crazy high values.I'd suggest a similar value-based approach if you have the data to calculate on to identify a few markets to start looking for deals in, but remember this is still too broad of analysis to make a go/no-go decision on the projects you find.