I have no experience in the building/development arena, but house-hacking is one of my current  investment strategies.

You'd be surprised how a random meeting can turn into a friendship or mentor-ship, but you have to be willing to put your face out there and take the time to develop relationships and acquire knowledge along the way.

It is close to an interstate and has high probability of development - worth more than asking.

If you are going to stay in single family rental units you have to maintain your needed statistics of demand, location, getting good deals, growth area, schools, nearby amenities, the retail development nearby, and taking baby steps but acquire several of them quickly so one vacancy will not be so painful when it happens, and it will.Good luck to you!

NOT MUCH.. but it does keep from having call backs and if there is a water landing they know they have insurance.. at the end of 10 years our builder warranty is up.. and then on top of that I Pay 30k up front for a project policy that covers all the houses in that particular community for 10 years as well.. this is for 1 mil and basically its used to hire attorneys if we get sued for builder defect.so in essence on a new build we are paying on the 25 house communities we built the last two years total of 50 homes.. about 110k in insurance to cover us for 10 years.. the issue is the subs get sued first then the GC then me the developer  but subs being subs 6 years from now they are out of business or moved on so then its the GC's insurance then us.. 

As a developer or going for a use change a certain series of events have to happen in your favor to make a project viable and profitable. it can be a long and arduous process.If the seller is wanting you to keep putting up more and more non-refundable money then it might be time to walk away.

It’s your first deal so maybe you won’t be motivated to do this but having the seller bring equity in form of the land, a developer/investor interested in the area and carries the construction financing, you really only bring them together (whatever that is worth to an investor) or some sort of partnership with the seller that outlines duties and recompense.

There is also a great deal of money that can be earned through a community development or redevelpment strategy.

It's also easy to go there and develop friendships and partnerships with the neighbors. 

If you're unconfident of identifying them, bring in an engineer.One of the biggest issues you'll run into is fire blocking.