I´ve been a real estate developer in Mexico for the past 20 years but things in my country are not very promising so I decided to turn my sight to USA to invest in real estate.

They were developed without much consideration for the lot lines. 

Couldn’t I locate a cheap & vacant lot, form an LLC, and take out a massive business startup loan to purchase and develop the land and fund the up front cost of a property manager that will help make sure the building remains full of tenants?

I'd keep an eye on metro developments, that will have the most impact on appreciation for these towns. 

@Wyatt Franta I’ve developed some agent connections who will be willing to help me.

One was talking about a major development with hundreds of units.

When I move to a new market I set up meetings with brokers, city planners, urban development, lenders, etc. and that's all I do for like a week straight.

My advice is to develop strategies to deal with it. 

Also in regards to reserve/vacancy for STNL a buyer can try and manipulate numbers any way they want and that doesn't change the market demand for these properties.Try to knock down a cap rate based on real NOI from a developer selling or a listing broker when the quality properties they are receiving full asking and 4 offers within days of listing will get an investor laughed at. 

I was hoping to develop a solid business plan before approaching any banks/hard lenders.