If I want $750,000 to start to rehab my once beautiful hurricane Florence ravaged city of New Bern, NC, does the buck stop with DoHardMoney?

I always went above and beyond the typical agent duties by getting very involved in the due diligence, dealing with county/ city planning and zoning etc, for two reasons, because I loved it and to help ensure my deal would go through by providing as much information to my client as possible to help them make a quick and intelligent decision.

Can I draw my own plans on sketch-up even though I have no planning certifications in order to submit for city permitting?

I currently live in Jersey City so it looks like we are not too far away from each other. 

In your experience:What metrics did you utilize to evaluate a city?

Zoning needs to be your first stop at the city offices followed by a visit to the organized event permit office.

Below is more context:- We all have full time jobs and in our early 30's- 2 of us live in New York City and 1 lives in Boston, if that matters- All of us are planning to do equal investment and buy the property in all cash- Our strategy for the first property is to go for cash flow - We are only going to buy one property under this LLC. 

There are some areas you probably want to avoid just like any other city. 

I choose to build a much more economical duplex (which my builds have been in the $90-120/ft2 range build costs only).There is no way the city will approve a 5 unit building with no offstreet parking.

I‘m still making decent cashflow from my job, but I’m considering buying a condo/townhouse for myself first to lower my monthly living expenses (I could move just outside the city for ~$600 less per month).