Your job as an investor is to reverse engineer the opportunity in order to intelligently evaluate risk/reward.As a newbie investor, are you able to do this?

You'll need an architect, structural engineer, MEP engineer, and to be able to get the project approved by your city.

I would reverse engineer this and figure out what your time is worth. 

Currently they have been moved and set on engineered foundations--so I can get TWIA windstorm (important in my area).

I have a background in engineering and survey and my wife has a background in architecture design.

While I don't manage any properties I do manage a large amount of business as an engineer and my general rule of thumb with price increases is to go in and be as transparent as I can be, give legitimate reasons for the change and what justifies a fair but necessary price increase.

Literally steam engine technology.

In an effort to automate and optimize I have discovered a program called LexisNexis that appears to be a limitless well of information when it comes to real estate and real estate law (as well as MANY other tools and ...

The idea behind this is clarity, knowing what you want and reverse engineering the actions needed to get that result.

I want to make sure I do a comprehensive review and verify all relevant items necessary before I pony up with a purchase.I have had a few conversations with people locally that say a Civil Engineer (there is a specific company I was referred to) that could likely do most of the research for me on the above-mentioned items/checklist.