The land is inside our property we own, it isn't accessible unless going through either our owned portion of yard or a small portion of our neighbors.

Tenants either park on the street in the front, or in the back yard off a small access street.

For example, if he has access to $100K and could look out of his expensive market and find a property for $100K purchase price, say, and he puts $25K down, and then has cash for reserves and additional purchases, great! 

If you don't have access to good comp list or MLS, could you use the 'just value' as a proxy to run your first set of numbers to see if the property warrants more accurate research?

For instance, you have access to a VA loan, yes?

First is, if it meets some basic conditions, you can actually finance it out on a 30yr amort... second, it's a great way to leverage traditional housing finance to access land that has tons more options, particularly if it has other value, such as on or near a corner of two major roads, adjacent to desirable features like waterfront or views.

"If you have a need to access cash from your house...maybe you owe the IRS taxes, have gone through bankruptcy, or behind on your mortgage payments...I could buy your house in the next 30 days to get you that money. 

While we aren’t likely to choose house hacking personally, is that route still a possibility, via bank lending, if we are co-owners with our son and his new wife as he goes to grad school, in essence using our credit and resources but benefiting from them living in one of the units, thus accessing owner occupied rates?

Off the top of my head, Dover, Wharton, Linden, West Orange, would all be great areas to start and all are very accessible by train.

It's very easy for me to look at all the things I don't have (access to bank financing, many years of experience, money to burn, etc.) but I'm shifting my focus to the unique things I do have.I'm able to fly for free thanks to a family member who works for a major airline.