That money (as well as surplus from my W2 job as an engineer) would be used to pay him back personally until I cover my half of the down payment.

Wisconsin just changed the law recently stating that we can throw away, sell, burn, donate, do whatever we want with the vast majority of items left behind (minus motor vehicles and medical stuff).

My goal in real estate is to eventually build up enough passive income to overtake my active income (biomedical engineer), then maybe I can call myself an investor.

Greetings,My name is Ryan Burns and as the subject title says, I am a newbie to real estate investing. 

yes you can. you may need to provide evidence of your ownership and your constriction plans and engineers drawings showing your intent for site. they won't just move it wo good reason. even then get ready to wait.  

My main concern is funding and I needed avenues to find inventors (I'm also in the Tampa region).This is pretty cool.One of the first connections you will need is a civil engineer with good connections to the community that you are looking to develop in. 

My name is Matthew and I am an electrical engineering major at Long Beach.

They decided it wasn't worth it and they got burned (pardon the pun) so they lost a lot. 

I got interested in real estate via family and my job - my sister is a successful investor in Texas and I work professionally as a surveyor/engineer.  

The Engineer at the Building Permits office would have to come out to the property and look at the work to tell me what needed to be done to property before we could order the inspection.We would have to have to renew the permit and pay a renewal fee.