This is not “student housing” in the traditional sense - even the vacancy risk doesn’t exist as it’s a 12 month lease / they work over the summer there, etc.  

It may be best to partner with someone that has done one before or somehow is a local expert on lot splits.If you can add a bathroom into existing space on high cost property it can add a lot of value.  

Does the operational company already exist and have income history?

I recently added a half bathroom to existing footage in a unit that is valued over $1k/ft that the comps showed the half bathroom added ~$50k of value.- not sure of your home market but i assume you are choosing ohio for its lower cost.  

It would be smarter for me to purchase an RE already with an ADU, but I kind of want the experience of building an ADU to add to my existing experience.  

In a rare case, it could be the second lien that is forclosing meaning the first lane still exists, and you would be on the hook for that.

This level of infrastructure typically exists only in cities with metro populations over 1M.SummaryThe odds of living in a city that meets all the requirements for financial freedom are low.

I'm not sure I can copy and paste my Excel spreadsheet, so i will approximate the numbers here.Strategy:Take a Home Equity Loan (second) on our primary @ 5%.Pay off existing HELOC (variable, at 7.5% now), use remainder ($120k) to buy the land (plus 30k of our own cash).

Those conditions don't exist any more, and the government has the right to regulate land use to try to prevent the current conditions from repeating. 

Set the second thermostat to whatever you consider the minimum temp to be - I would use 55º - and electrically parallel the existing and the hidden thermostat.