The cost of living is extremely low compared to other cities and you can still many many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here.

However, just before work was scheduled to start, the foundation company informed us of severe, uncontrollable settlement issues that made repairs unfeasible.Given the significant delays and additional costs this would entail, we made a quick decision to sell the property to another investor.

I received a quote from Foremost which is almost half the cost.

Our approach required no renovation investment, highlighting Partner Driven's ability to maximize returns with minimal costs.

For example, if you refinanced your home at 7% interest and took 30 years to pay it off, it would cost you a total of $121,000 to pay it off, and you would be paying a much higher interest on your entire home loan. 

Other properties are showing high costs, but I'm not really sure how to get good comps with this situation

Could be a low-cost loan or seed money equity stake rather than a gift to be more "fair". 

Combined this leads to high cost of leveraged purchases. 

That comes out to 30% of their total closing cost.

Look at new construction triplex/duplex condo sales in the heights areas, subtract carrying cost over build timeline, materials, labor and construction costs, what their desired profit in heights deals would be and that would leave you with approximate acquisition cost of the lot.