I could easily find myself trying to contract the house a recent widower, or parent abused by their child.

Most planning departments would lose a foot race with a glacier.   

Looking to see if there are any local investors who can give me a rough cost per square foot to expect building new construction.

The ticket price is high, yes, but with creative strategies like househacking and live-in flipping, even a newbie can their foot in the door of CA investing.Those are my two cents.And everything you need to know about out-of-state investing you'll find in David Greene's excellent book Long Distance Real Estate Investing.Good luck!

- This is more than likely zoned "residential" you will find the property specification in the county website https://polkpa.org, this is where they specify the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, if the property is showing as a 3bd/2ba, it would be very uncommon for someone to remove a bathroom, but I would check the property to see if there was evidence of a previous bathroom, however there is value in having a 3bd/2ba vs a 3bd/1ba, this holds true for selling or renting.931 sqft - I like these smaller homes, as there is potential to make them bigger, you should check to see if there are any roof covered areas such as a porch, where you can expand the square footage of the home, any time you are pricing a home you base the value of the property on the selling price of similar properties, and you determine the price per square foot, you can then apply that to your property, so if you add square footage to a property you are rehabbing, you can add value by expanding the size.Year built: 1961 - Be sure to have it inspected, you should always inspect a house you are going to buy, especially if you are just starting out, having a professional asses the property can be priceless.

-IRS liens (IRS may buy the property within 120 days after sale at the price paid at foreclosure sale)-Code Enforcement Liens, Environmental Liens, and Utility Liens-Child Support LiensThese are the liens not included when the seller goes to pay for title insurance, most liens will be cleared except these.

I'm not surprised they wouldn't want to foot the bill but we never felt it wise to pay for units that could easily surpass our existing lease also.

I excavated and set grades for footings and prefab walkout basement.

They basically hold the building liable rather than the owner and that liability transfers from owner to owner until someone deleads it and breaks the chain. 460.100: Duty of Owner(s) of Residential Premises (B) Whenever any residential premises containing dangerous levels of lead in paint, plaster or other accessible structural material undergoes a change of ownership and as a result a child younger than six years old will become or will continue to be a resident therein, the new owner shall have 90 days after becoming the owner to obtain a Letter of Full Compliance or a Letter of Interim Control, except that if a child younger than six years old who is lead poisoned resides therein, the owner shall not be eligible for interim control, unless the Director grants a waiver pursuant to 105 CMR 460.100(A)(3).

"Be the general" is good advice, but the general has to pay (or get someone else to pay) his foot soldiers.