Give everyone a better sense of what you were considering.https://www.firstdeal.com/

I also heard Brett Immel was still doing business in Iowa, though I read an article that says he has been busted for lying during a bankruptcy hearing and may go to prison for 5 years.Would it make sense to contact the S.E.C.?

He ran the numbers, we used a calculator to run numbers for rental or flip property, and the math made sense.

I overall agree that right now most real estate doesn't make sense for a hobby investor.

From my experience, when I dive into the costs associated with building an ADU—including construction expenses and financing options like hard money loans—it often doesn’t make financial sense.

As investors (buying a home to live in or to house a business we own is DIFFERENT), 90% of sellers will NOT (at least at the present time) accept an offer that makes sense for the investor.  

We set the cameras around our offices up for motion sensing.

If it looks like you can subdivide, then you can sketch out a preliminary plan or several variations to give you a sense of how many lots you can build.     

Would the numbers make sense to repay the investor in 5 years?

Builders can give you some sense of cost and project scope and local officials can let you know if any grants exist for affordable housing, re-zoning efforts, etc.