Profit has to be made in order for those products and services to continually be offered, improved and consumed. 

Intent is to live in the largest area of the house, rent an already existing basement apartment on short term rental, add a bathroom and kitchenette to two finished rooms in the garage and create a second short term rental, and then put a yurt in the back yard with sole access to another bathroom that'd be installed in the garage as another STR. 

Have you thought of living in it immediately while you improve it (to either rent at market rate or to resell)?

It depends on the box size, where it is at location wise and demographics, site lines, access with cross traffic, and if dark but current tenant still paying or totally vacant.Smaller box sizes usually have a long list of tenants waiting to go into the spaces in strong markets.

Obviously, it's too late for this circumstance, but I'm always looking for ways to improve my lease and business.

Even if you have to delay your career for family, improving you capital position is never a waste of time.

Decide how much money you have access to, & the zip codes, city or state you want to focus on.

How do I get access to land/lot public records like these?

When looking at real estate all assets classified as 15 year land improvements and 5 or 7 year personal property qualify for 100% bonus depreciation, meaning you can deduct their entire cost in year 1 instead of spreading that deduction out over 5, 7 or 15 years.

I'd like to meet the guy who came up with these % rules....Your capex ("major improvements") budget is a function of the age, the condition and the replacement value of them home.