Since you're in Canton, you have great access to the Northeast Ohio markets, and that makes your $40k more valuable than it would otherwise be in some other location with heightened real estate valuations.

As I wrote out the options in this post elimination became the seemingly obvious choice and your confirmation steels the decision.

If you want a mentor to spend their (valuable) time teaching you then you better know that they want something of value from you as well.

Thank you and valuable info for the newbie like me.

@Jay Hinrichs if the lot sits in a well-developed neighborhood and has already been cleared for building and zoning, wouldn't this make the lot valuable to a land developer?

@Kelly DeWinterThank you all for taking the time to reply and for valuable advice.

@Andrew Greene I'm a new Real Estate Agent, so I don't know how valuable my input is on this, but I just moved to Portland, OR 3 or 4 years ago and my network is extremely small, especially when compared to home.

You might just look into finding a property that you can house hack and decrease your living expenses by renting out to somebody else but looking elsewhere to invest in more valuable properties.

I suppose that sometime somewhere some brilliant elected lawmaker (or several) decided that money was more valuable than knowledge... 

It’s just a thought now and truth be told I’m not sure how valuable it would be to consumers.