The development encompasses residential, commercial, and hospitality components and consists of two parts: Phase 1 comprises 3 buildings located at 248 Tioranda Avenue and Phase 2 comprises 8 buildings located at 555 South Avenue.

IMO, know your end product goal and break your rehab down into phases.  

As far as leverage goes, personally I had an acquisition phase,  maintain/optimize phase, then payoff and strategic exit phase.I've paid off a bunch, but all for specific reasons. 

If you are just in the research phase and you are not in the position to purchase that is fine.

By sharing what the qualifying criteria is beforehand, others can self-select out and you should be able to actually go to the application phase with one or two candidates. 

I am still in the learning phase of my real estate journey, but I would love to attend.

However, the intent behind these regulations is that the non-conforming usage will eventually be phased out over time as properties reach the end of their useful life / burn down, neighborhoods change with development, etc.I'm not an authority on this, but I've done quite a bit of research over the years based on multiple properties I've purchased, been under contract on, and modified for "non-standard" investment purposes.  

I max out my Roth IRA every year and also contribute 10% of my pay (before taxes) to my Simple IRA as I shift into a debt reduction phase later in the year this year I do plan on upping the contribution to 15% of my gross pay once I feel comfortable with my level of debt or have eliminated all my bad debt (incurred getting the real estate stuff going). 

She has in mind to first fence the property, then lay a foundation, then build a room or two, all the time working to save for the next phase.

A survey and phase 1 will likely be required if you are getting debt, and smart to get those done either way just for peace of mind, but those will cost money as well.