There's a healthy group of A/D military folks investing in the area. 

I think more important than paying cash is keeping a healthy reserve for older properties like this.

2) given their offer would cover more than my capex costs if I just did the $4,000 soil leveling, what would your next steps on the negotiation be?

Unless you only want one or two properties to have a little side income coming in, you need to have a healthy market for your units. 

When acquiring these old gems, or objective is to improve their energy efficiency by a minimum of 50% (40% on newer, post War houses) while updating the building to provide modern, healthy living spaces for our tenants.  

There are so many small MN towns that must offer healthy cash flow returns. 

The tax code is like a guidebook that tells you where the government thinks the money needs to go in order to produce a healthy economy.

It really kinda snowballs.You may find, however, that until your S-Corp (you will want to do one) has enough credit history and borrowing power to sidestep personal guarantees, you'll want to maintain a healthy credit profile.

They both have a welcome home in my rental property portfolio generating a healthy source of income and underlying appreciation.

I'm thinking master plan, soil. setbacks and variances, utilities if they are already not available at the site for hookup....