One idea would be to looking into a bridge loan as compared to hard money, although I have no idea how different the terms are.

Each community has deals in it when compared to other opportunities in that community.

@Rob Buffington Being that it's less than 5 units, an appraiser is going to use the comparative method rather than the income approach so you need to get some good market comps.

Do we have (state by state) benchmark utility cost data I can use to compare my bills to?

What about a mall compared to a hotel or multi-family, maybe a for profit hospital or private airport or a race track, they all involve real estate and they all have toilets. :) 

That's a $210k gains in equity compared to $110k gain had you exchanged into it at $300k.It sounds counter intuitive, but most people do the opposite.

You can also have your agent do a comparative market analysis for the area around the subject property and also pull lease information from the MLS.Have you used the Rental Properties Calculator here on Bigger Pockets to determine if this is a good deal?

The costs savings compared to risk just do not seem to be there.  

When your properties are finished with quality above anyone else, your properties will sell, and their properties will sit on the market when compared to yours!

In Memphis, we are a year or two behind in design compared to markets like California or NYC so if things are changing here on the high end, it will start dwindling down to the mid to low end across the country.