Commercial financing is easier in a lot of respects than residential...the cash flow of the building is what matters, not so much the income of the borrower. 

Call the comps and speak with the property manager or experienced leasing agent and ask a ton of questions, but be respectful of their time as they don't have much for someone not renting a unit.  

Many members are experts in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate brokerage, wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.There are some pretty cool discounts on various products and services offered as Perks to BP members that you might want to check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/pro

People respect honesty, and I believe they would be even more interested in working with you, because you are trust worthy. 

Pursue the Board options but move on and get the job finished with a respectable GC.

@Chris Mason Respectfully, not everything is math...there are all sorts of reasons that someone may be in a position to pay a higher rate, these "challenges" (DTI, Credit Score, BK, F, etc) can be overcome by going to person lender who can overlook these and a deal can be "handcrafted", secured against the collateral vs. fitting into some bank's guidelines. 

Should I attend the funeral (to pay my respects, obviously, not to talk business)?

I pride myself on being there for my clients 24/7 (respectfully of course, we Realtors do need our family time).My past clients have been happy with my "turn around time" when making offers and keeping the sellers agent on track and keeping the transaction on pace.

I respect hearing your reasoning because I take all opinions into account.

I have two single family homes on the North side of Racine (nicer areas) that I purchased for 45k and 57k back in 2012, respectively.