I would be happy to forward you the contacts of these folks so you can reach out, as well as a referral for a short term rental consultant who may have some insight.

The one thing I am unsure about is how earnest money works when you have yet to find a willing buyer to assign the contract to?

One small step forward each day!

While I could kick myself now, I view it as an invaluable experience because it put me on the receiving end of a close and gave me direct insight into why people sell homes to investors.

We have a potential buyer of a lot in St Augustine, FL who would like to build a new single family short term rental.

I second a lot of what has been stated by others in this forum.

I work in engagement marketing and deal with construction tradesmen all day, usually more custom type tradespersons with a lot of care and concern for their own work, which may glamorize it more than I realize.

While I do maintain a relatively modest percentage of my assets in money market instruments, corporate debt funds, and high dividend stocks, I remain most comfortable with the investments I specialize in and know best.  

if they are pressuring you like this.PLEASE watch the American Greed Episode on Remmington Financial  .not saying these guys wont or don't fund of course.. but when I do my deals with my banks its common that I pay for the phase one and the appraiser directly..  

It would have to be pretty egregious and an unusual situation.I don't know of a case and would be interested if such a case existed.