If you are considering a larger multi-family, there would be additional things to check like employee records, reserve funds, review of bank accounts, environmental assessment, and more.

If major CEQA processing is required, such as a full Environmental Impact Report, hire and manage an environmental consulting company for the production of the EIR and all necessary CEQA documents required for the completion of the environmental review.

I come from a professional commercial construction background with a Bachelors in Interior & Environmental Design and I currently work from home in E-Commerce/Marketing (hoping to blend all these backgrounds into a real estate investing :) I had a specific opportunity recently come up that I'm needing some advice on...

More inventory would solve this situation of affordable housing, but we have all the environmental concerns in this state. 

And, like you, I feel constrained on what I can do on my flips given the footprint of the homes (built mostly in the 1940's - 1950's) and it's frustrating when a potential buyer "complains" about certain things like they are buying a brand new home. 

@Tom Anderson A good friend of mine started the company Safe Environmental Solutions.

Chinese steel and aluminum plants have almost no environmental controls, and they get free electricity.By ALL accounts they dump steel. 

Does the property have the footprint to support it? 

If that theory is true, which I don't know that I believe that fully, then environmentalism and moving away from fossil fuels might create an "oil age collapse."

He also called the Department of Environmental Protection because these folks have trash and debris all over their lot, he said the DEP is making them clean it up.