Been awhile since I watched it, but it's a great exercise in thinking outside the box, and answers the people who look down on salesmen. https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_les...All my best to you! 

Those two factors play a big role in how you move forward. 

What is the agent's role in it, do you HAVE to go through them?

As the author said several times (i am paraphrasing), "if it were true that you could buy some 'system,' pill, or speed 2 minutes a day on a particular exercise machine, each one of us would be real estate moguls, stock market millionaires, and have abs of steel."

If and when you decide that you want to relinquish that role, you need to make sure your accountant is performing.Real estate is all about the numbers, and learning taxes can only help.Gino

Although if the house we have a bid on doesn't go through, it might be a good exercise to see what that right of way is worth to her...

I exercise.

Plus if the tax role says $750K and you pay 3 times that, you might expect the taxes to adjust upward and by enough to make the whole deal need a recalc.

Since he lives there, and plans to stay, maybe he'd be open to playing the role of PM?  

@Jesse Andrews Its not clear what your role in this is, but unless you want to be the builder, I would recommend purchasing the raw land,  then having it subdivided, the sell each subdivided lot to each individual buyer.