Understanding your 'why' is often hard but do this work up front to put the best foot forward.

We were fortunate enough to buy a 1,600 square foot single family with 4 bedrooms in Davis back in 2010, just behind the Trader Joe's on Russell, when the market was down. 

Second question is I am curious to hear anyones finished cost per square foot that has completed a new construction house recently regardless of area just to get an idea of what prices are in different areas.  

It's free for everyone like Cozy but it has a seemingly robust expense tracker that'll be able to code expenses to different properties and categories to then export to excel for the cpa at the end of the year.

BUT today I went to the lumber yard and bought four little 9 foots studs to finish a building prior to sheet rock and the price was $52 for 4 sticks!

Even if your land price is double, your return will be higher since the building/fence/security/electrical/etc will be the same.The really big swings in building a Storage location are: Footings required, Concrete/Asphalt roads or rock, Sewer/water required for bathroom, fire hydrant required, storm retention pond or drainage, etc. 

With the hopes of getting my foot in the door to the real estate world. 

I love partnerships, especially if they are experienced, as a good way to get your foot in the door. 

The housing market in my area is extremely overpriced, such as a 950 square foot, 2 bedroom house with no garage going for around $155,000 in a small Indiana town.

The other piece of advice I have is that you need to lower your price point to a place where you can compete on a more equal footing.