Pay all the soft costs (about 20k more for total architect/zoning attorney/surveyor and acquire the plans and sell the lot from there?

(not the cheap MDF ones, but the ones that are made from solid plywood boxes and soft close drawers).4. 

Even though you may have experience running a brush over a wall, there’s a huge difference in time and quality between a professional paint job and someone painting their own wall.

A quart of rustoleum paint is about $9 and a 3" angle brush from the dollar tree is $1.

Any signs of softness?

I'm sure some of you have came across the software Freedom Soft.

Soft costs including designand engineering plans ($1 sqft), plot plan($600 deal from connection ) and soil test for septic ($500 to plumber for excavation and 200 for city).

. :)If you've got the time, do a conventional 'soft money' cash out refinance on one or both of the others.If you don't have that time, get hard money on one or both of the others & refinance the hard money after.

The rest is ensuring that there are not other dangerous conditions in the home, such as soft floors.  

The memorandum (some use a letter of intent) approach is considered a "soft lease option" because the memorandum is generally a non-exclusive agreement that gives the seller the ability to walk away at any time if they choose to do so (even once you've spent all your time and energy finding a buyer and the seller decides to walk away at the last minute), but also gives you the ability to gain an assignable interest via the memorandum in a way that feels less scary to a seller (and generally you can structure the terms of the memorandum to have the rental payments begin the moment you assign, so you don't have to make payments while you're trying to find someone to assign to).You can also gain an assignable interest through a "hard lease option" that is exclusive between you and the seller, and will usually require you to start making payments at a specified date.