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).

You can add keywords when people use the city you are in.

Those will exhibit the opposite of an inclined business cycle.I believe that an Investor can intelligently determine whether then business cycle will be inclined, declined or just horizontal by understanding what happens to their particlar neighborhood during the down cyle part of the business cycle.For instance, in the downturn, it is normal for Cities to lose money, and therefore cut services.