And maybe to my own naive experience, I’m trying not to use a realtor in an effort to get a better price due to the strong market.

With $100K to work with, you can buy 3 properties in an affordable market like Indianapolis and Kansas City which are both strong cash flow markets.

Sounds like you are on your way to building a strong portfolio!

If you plan to hold and rent this house for a while, I strongly suggest you personally/safely inspect the crawl space with an experienced foundation contractor or (better yet) an engineer. 

I would strongly encourage you to attend the BARE Investors meetup - Bad *** Real Estate.

@Chris Shue all 3 are strong points, good luck!!

Also, look for markets that have experienced strong job and population growth in the recent past. 

The mean high for investors that have a strong track record and pretty good cash flow will be 80% LTV.

Considering a 10+ unit residential commercial property if one already owns the land, has everything else in order: civil engineering, soil survey, Phase I, and architectural blueprints...if the owner was forced to sell due to lack of financing and or some other reason does having those things necessarily increase the value of the vacant land?

I’d make sure you have a strong and specific agreement.