Construction Loan advice needed

[Gary Nicholson]

Hello all, 

I have a 10 acre investment property that I am about to build a SFR on and rent out for AirBnb. I own the property free and clear. I have the plans completed and I'm currently waiting for the county to approve the planset. I have a general contractor I will be using for the ground up build.
 

Now, I am looking for lenders. Can anyone recommend some lenders? I have been developing some leads on my own, but wonder if they are good, trustworthy, etc.. is there a way to check out a bank or lender? I looked up some on Bankrate, but I am not sure how the scoring works. Other than personal reviews, how best to check them out?

Ideally, I would like to find a loan with 1 closing - Construction to perm. Perhaps a 7/1 or 5/1 ARM during construction with a 3.3% interest rate and then post construction, modify it to a 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage with the original lender or else another one of my choosing.

So far I have been looking hard at Johnson Bank which appears to have very favorable construction loan terms. Other than that, I do not know much about them. 

Would a hard money lender be a better route? I plan to be done with construction in 6-8 months max then fold into a mortgage. Once this project is done, I plan to develop other projects as the area I am developing is hot for tourism. 

With that said, if any investors are reading this, perhaps we could chat further as I would really like to find a partner to develop more properties for this area.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!