The purchase price is just one, small piece of the puzzle. 

Find someone else you can add to the ownership structure and give them a small piece of your deal.

If I had it to do over again I may go the route @Julie McCoy suggests as the up front cost for my two-piece system is (~$175 per lock and $100 for each hub) is substantial and you do have to do a little setup.

The 1031 can act as swiftly as the rest of the pieces can. 

If there's no record of anything ever being put on that piece of land, it means you'll have to add infrastructure to it which can be costly. 

I am looking to start small either in commercial or residential (if the numbers make sense).I can handle all of the necessary research/comps, underwriting, and generally making sure the deal makes sense, but looking for some guidance on raising the equity piece of the capital stack. 

It all depends on how robust it needs to be, but you probably can't beat the price for this one—just over $2,000 with sidewalls https://gettent.com/20-x-40-presto-series-pole-canopy-1-piec...

There is a large piece that you didnt mention, the actual cost of the development.

I requested copies of the income taxes for them both and it looks like this could be a pretty good deal but I'm not sure how much he spends on materials to keep them running as that was not included in his "financial report" (which was a piece of paper with number written for utilities).

One piece of advice I would recommend if you want to go FHA is getting to understand the self sufficiency test for 3 and 4 unit buildings. https://www.newcastle.loans/mortgage-guide/fha-self-sufficie...