Other than paying for an appraisal or BPO (and maybe a credit report), you should not pay a lender anything until your loan funds.

The two existing LTR units (on my family’s property) were built 5–8 years ago at a cost of about $80,000 per unit, so I’m estimating a 20% increase in costs for the new builds.My plan is to use the equity in the land as the down payment for the construction loan, which I expect will make closing costs the primary upfront expense.

For active investments I advocate considering how you can diversify WITHOUT ceding your competitive advantage nor the superior profitability of the niche your in.As an example my business is running an investment fund and syndication high interest commercial mortgage loans secured by income producing real estate. 

(By the way, I never pay points for any loans.

At the current scenario, without knowing anything about you or your properties I will recommend either to look at a loan from your assets using DSCR loan.

. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Credit scores can be misleading when screening tenants, as many lack the term loans (like mortgages) that drive high scores.

The current lender refuses to do a loan assumption. 

For example, I have a loan that's at 0.97%. 

So we retired the sellers loan within 12 to 18 months.

And if it were set up where everything went through a title company so the buyer pays the title company, they manage the buyer's loan (from me), and the title company ensures my mortgage is paid without my direct involvement... what parts of the transaction would feel risky or not worth the headache to you?