It's difficult to comment on the rate without at least a general ballpark of the size, general location, and status of the asset.

I believe this is based on size, amenities and overall condition.  

have seen homes on similar size lots go for around 150k. the land is just sitting there for several years going on decades. the shrubs seem to be well on their way into growing into trees; is there like a service that clears lots for a fee, or maybe it would be more cost effective to put a (manufactured?)

This is because some of the fees stay the same for any size mortgage.

The fax to PDF solution I mentioned might be good if the papers are distributed, but if they are all in one place and need to be scanned in bulk, then other high speed scanners might be a better bet.

The color shows the Market Health Index (Green - 10; Red - 1), and the size of the circle shows the Market Price To Rent ratio.  

If you're doing everything in Illinois, your easiest/safest bet is to form an Illinois LLC.However, an LLC may not be needed at this point.

What are the typical financing requirements for a mid size commercial multifamily. 8-24 units?

Egress windows, size of bedrooms, stuff like that. 

That's even if they let you retire a large amount of people have been getting the boot and it not because they were bad but it was a way for the military to down size and due to their budget cuts !!!