He owns it free and clear, it was his parents home so there is some emotional attachment to it but he has financial issues and cannot afford to keep up the property or pay off any of his debt.

Mark,sounds like you still have some homework to do, @Colin L. brought up some real good costs, to make sure you include them in your costs, there are going to be tie in fees for utilities, holding costs of taxes, insurance, electric, a temporary fence around the property, possibly a 24 hr security co depending on the area, etc. unless there are similar properties to what you are proposing to build around you sometimes it is not that easy to change the zoning, a lot of towns do not like to do spot zoning, create a zone within a zone area, I would suggest talking to the zoning office to find out if it would be feasible or a land use attorney.

County commissioners, or in this case city council members, can be easily swayed by an emotional crowd, especially if no one is there providing level-headed facts.

Apartment tenants are renters and tend to see an apartment as a temporary solution, while MHP tenants own the MH and tend to have more of a homeowner mentality. 

I was against the Arena at first - but have been sold - the one thing I was REALLY skeptical on about the arena is when they funded it with a temporary sales tax -- I NEVER in my wildest dreams believed the extra 1 cent sales tax would sunset like they promised -- I do recall that the county commission if I remember correctly did at the last minute try to keep the sales tax active but it didnt pass and they allowed it to sunset as it should have.   

Have to remind myself not to get emotionally attached.

Make decisions based off facts rather than emotion.

Numbers are one thing, how you feel - emotions- are another.

As an investor, separate the emotion and focus on the numbers and the risk.Best wishes!

A metric takes the emotion and guesswork out of it.