There is certainly an uptick in scrutiny against fraud and with valuations for refinances (esp. cash-out) in the current environment

I think the main drawback is being on a Prepayment Penalty in a rate decreasing environment.

Sergy there is a good swath of born and raised Americans that have never been out of their state or really the city they live in.. so your right they only know what they know given their environment..  

The OG Podcast was the "one-stop shop" and focused on what folks were coming for - actionable and relatable real estate advice and stories.There is such a thing as too much of a good thing and the current BP environment is evidence of that.

My advise is to start with single family or a small multi-family ground up project first but this market environment is truthfully not the time to be completing any ground up projects unless you are self performing the construction which it doesn't appear you are in a position to do.There was a recent Philadelphia  forum chain started by someone else who was contemplating ground up in a similar fashion to what you are proposing and I cautioned they would be better off buying something that was newly built and believe after conducting their own diligence realized it was too cost prohibitive at this time to build with 3rd party GC's in Philadelphia when also accounting for the interest rate environment and cost to build.

Environment issues, are there any Wetlands on my property, you can look up the national wetland interactive map https://www.fws.gov/program/national-wetlands-inventory/wetl...7.

If you are a doing an infill build-to-rent, that's fine, but in the current environment, it is very difficult to make any cashflow so its a 100% appreciation play.

I'd just point out that it holds for other states as well.I would think in general states with less environment diversity would not have such extremes.    

A bigger uncertainty is that the rent control may become more and and more strict over time creating a very risky business environment. 

or buy something with an ADU and you live in the ADU and rent out the main house.the current environment is just tough.