You are in way over your head if you haven't figured out any way to accept money other than from a money order in the mail.

Consider the time, effort, and expense to develop a concept plan to include site drawings, home types, homes per acre, site storm water retention plan, tree save areas, conservation areas, wetland setbacks, time considerations for meetings with county land use planners, negotiating easements for utilities, rezoning meetings with county council, revisions to your plans to meet demands of neighbors, planners and/or county council, and hopefully getting a final approval for your project.

Facebook groups will help a lot  in your area and try to meet up with a  connection you build.. dinner etc on you and he  or she can give awesome advice which will save time money efforts

If this is the case does that mean I would need to get hard money loans?

Now it closer to $500 plus they steal a large fee from my guests and force me to use their 3% fees to get my money.

Some properties, especially those with Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), provide opportunity to break even or cashflow with lower down payments.Out of state (as well as Upstate NY) investing is appealing when taking this all into consideration.

That will limit the amount of time the property could be off the market IF the buyer doesn't like the inspection.Lastly, get a satisfactory amount of earnest money deposit on that contract.

That way,  you could legally use the money in the account to purchase investments such as real estate, etc.

Put as little money in as you can to buy it, but if you are buying in a location where you expect prices to drop 20%...why would you buy there? 

If you're serious & confident you can lease your properties up in time, you may want to consider putting significant rent money and EMD up front.Feel free to shoot me a pm or give me a buzz at contact info in bio - always down for a chat!