You want at least a 30% margin above costs and the NOI needs to be enough to pay the debt service after stabilization and then some.If the project looks feasible from a financial standpoint the next step is to check with the city or county planning and zoning department to get an idea if your concept will work, if you can build what you would like to build and what is required for all approvals including site plan, building permits, proffers, water/sewer tap fees, bonding requirements, inspections, setbacks, lot coverages, parking requirements, height restrictions, C/O process and time frame for all approvals.You also need to check with the utility companies and get an idea of availability and cost estimates from them for water, sewer, power, gas, cable, installation and connection requirements, tap fees, hookup charges, transformer location and relocation, power line and power pole relocation issues.

The building department in your municipal will be able to identify how the church is zoned.   

The health department will do an inspection of the property in order to get the water into your name until the property is rented.

There's a simple calculator here that will give you a close estimate of what to expect: https://www.charlestoncounty.org/departments/auditor/tax-estimator.phpJust input the tax district (from tax records) and your purchase price.   

That in itself probably wouldn’t have disqualified her, but she had a lot of debt racked up on department store credit cards.

I am currently in talks with the city zoning and planning department to figure out how to move forward, but i'm afraid i'm going to be opening a can of worms with talking to this department.

Why didn’t I invest in real estate why flipping 40 homes and running maintenance department?

You'll need to call the planning department and figure out what the city is going to want to do regarding the wetlands. 

I’ve knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors all over the country and became one of the top Customer development leaders in the department and have mentored hundreds of people about knocking on doors for 4 years.

My suggestion, go to the city building department, tell them you are interested in purchasing the property, find out what they will require from you to close the orders, and if their is any fees or fines being assessed to the property because of them.