I would definitely try to talk to the water department to see if they can give you a reduction and if they can investigate the cause at all.

I'm now investigating the MLS.

I would figure around $3500.I have not investigated much about financing an investment property, if 20% is required I would happily put that down. 

Plus, Seth Williams has an amazing amount of information as well so in the same manner you wouldn't buy just one book on real estate investing from one author, you should probably investigate all the different angles and methodologies of different land investors.  

Don't mean to be snippy, but use the search function and investigate a topic and if you'll better define specific questions you'll get much better answers.

I had heard that it takes two years of seasoning before rental income would count toward mortgage qualifying, but it looks like I need to investigate that more!  

George, I though about your idea and in fact, I spoke this morning to RE investigator from the MN Department of Commerce and I asked him if I could pay anything to anybody that finds a vacant property for me and he said that $ only could be paid to a licensed RE agent and not to a Co or an individual. 

That is what I remember from speaking with a representative about 8 months ago but I would investigate further to be sure.

If you want to be a step ahead of development, you might want to consider investigating San Antonio, for the reasons stated.

You might think of hiring a private investigator .