Low ball offer or come up with an agreement and put 20% down2.

It's very hard to spit ball numbers on any type of development project because every town has different restrictions and every site within each town is unique.

I have experience with subleasing, prospecting, and collecting rent from many other college students when I was a college student, but I suppose that’s not very convincing.How does one get the ball rolling?

@David Vander Pol, you've identified what I think is a major issue for most people to get the ball rolling.

Hey @Tim White thanks so much for the offer to help & for the feedback, much appreciated.As a true testament to BP's great community, I actually had quite a few people reach out, so I'm going to hold off on getting more intros for the moment as I don't want to over-commit and drop the ball on anyone, hope you understand! 

As a rental you're not worried really about how much the home is worth but how much income the home temperatures.

You need to find out.If you really want to start the ball rolling, write a purchase contract with them for $285K.  

I guess there is an advantage to having long winters with -30 temperatures and lots of snow .. all the moss on the roofs has to start anew each year ;-)

I'm that much more motivated to get this ball rolling.

Otherwise you have a ball of worms for an audit.