I'm told that due to the fact that Kershaw County is a small, rural county in SC that I may not be able to do much, and that they see an out-of-state owner (especially from NY, or CA, etc.) as a gold mine and I should just expect to be price-gouged.   

This site is absolute gold in terms of resources and support.

In my opinion, having a local joint venture partner is worth its weight in gold.

@Taylor Reichert When you have more experience you will learn that problems are opportunities.Your prospective seller(s) have a problem in that they are unable to pass marketable title.If it were me, I'd determine if it was due to a prior break in chain of title, a current secured creditor or a competing claim for control by another a heir or beneficiary. 

Those are the holy grail, and you need to treat them like gold.

I'm in the supply chain industry as well and know transportation is not an easy job!  

To muliply the sin, we all got harvest gold, avacado or rust shag...or all,three mixed.3) High Investment cost... 

Also while I am in no way affiliated with Trello, if anyone doesn't yet have a Trello account and wants to sign up, feel free to use this link so I can get trello gold (really only good for adding your own background image to trello boards)Thanks!

Those chains usually provide their own financing for the construction.

You're starting a chain of hotels that will one day consist of 1000s of hotels....What would you name it?