Either way, it's all presentational on the balance sheet and the tax effect should be the same on the Schedule C regardless of what happens. 

Any recommendations for books/resources to help the newbie through the process of how to go from start to finish with the development process and each of the steps involved in buying land, going through zoning and planning, how especially to forecast costs and do the due diligence to forecast the potential to then divide the plot into smaller lots and build duplexes to hold and rent?

@Krista PorterConstruction shouldn't be effected you see city construction and homes still being built even inspections are adapting.

Take into effect the time of year, SF of home, if they're charging per door which a lot of college housing will, etc.

I also remember a podcast where a guy would buy trailers, fix them and then rent to own and did it very effectively.

There are many other factors that go in place before a market value can be effected. 

Based on my internal proprietary calculations;What I am seeing is right now the average SFH home price (USA) is about 35% above where it would be if only owner occupants owned them all (with very few rentals and no flips), (not including the high end trophy home market present in many areas).More popular SFH rental/flip areas will have higher percentages than less popular areas to average out to the 35%.So we have price heat (and volume) coming from people owning more than one SFH (speculation) (Tom Vu Seminars, and all the rest) in addition to the SFH market price set by worker demand for owner occupied housing.To me it looks like a financial shakeout the SFH speculators might (possibly) have more of an effect on the SFH pricing than a workforce issue. 

Curious to know everyone's thoughts on this and if this is effecting your business.

Bailey,To both @Jonathan Greene and @Brian Adams points, you need to have a solid strategy in place to be effective at direct mail.

An effective marketing campaign takes advantage of multiple ways to contact sellers.