The information contained in this post is not to be relied upon.

While most municipalities do not possess an interative map as easy to use, once you famiarlize yourself with the base zoning districts that allow the 2-4 unit buildings, relying on the local zoning maps will help direct you to the specific areas within the municipality that possesses the proper zoning.

We have bought hundreds of properties at auctions almost always without an appraisal, relying on our own judgement as to the value.

I have experience working for general contractors as a project manager however I am not sure how much that will translate into the real estate investing side. 

From conversations with my loan officer, he's concerned that I couldn't rely on your suggestion of simply transferring full responsibility of the loan over to me without triggering the due on sale.  

This is better than relying on insurance because it protects your personal assets from liability.

Never rely on just one data source.

There are so much better and efficient ways to generate leads than simply generate the largest possible lead funnel and rely on the fact that even at a 0.001% success rate, if you blast your text message out to 100,000 people you will still land a deal. 

You can't just rely on a book or listening to someone and then go big.

This is a Buffet/Munger quote and translates well to real estate.