New to the site and looking to learn all that I can about real estate investing.I haven’t gotten started yet, unless you count my personal residence that we plan to rent out once the mortgage is paid off.I am hoping to find a mentor to learn the ins and outs of flipping and buy and hold from.

I wouldn't just count on treating them like gold.There also is no difference between marketing for wholesalers, Flippers, buy and hold,.. computers, cars,  vacation trips...THe strategies work on the same principle.

You have to count for the costs of building the pads, the cost of hooking up utilities, costs of either building a well or connecting to city lines, costs of building a septic tank or connecting to city lines,  the phase 1 survey to make sure the land is not contaminated, not to mention all the fees I probably don’t even know about to maleness it ok with the city.Not meant to scare you or anything but just a precaution to be aware of what you are really going to pay before you get started in this endeavor.

That just doesn’t count because it isn’t a failure, it is choosing to go another direction.

I never count on raising rents to service debt at some point in the future I base everything on current market rents and factor a little rent depreciation into my models.This means I have to pass up many deals but that’s ok.

This purchase would be almost entirely counting on appreciation from the explosive growth as you mentioned… I know that's usually not the smartest move, especially on this property since as you pointed out it doesn't even meet the 1% indicator, and as such cash flow and CoC return are not good.  

If you force enough appreciation you can 4x or more your unit count.

So the comps the appriser is using are current conditions.When we challenged the low appraisal based on facts of the comp properties, he did not want to make any adjustments ( i.e. comp's had wrong bedroom count, did not factor in being across from a cemetery, did not take into account master bed/bath, school districts etc. and did not account for any finishes, for example, SS appliances, hardwood floors).

(My little brother went to Calvin, does that count?)

counting