Making a borrower feel grateful is simply part of the scam, you could give a starving person raw fish to eat and you could make them happy.

He prefers to travel or go fishing instead of helping me out.

The hard part is finding buyers willing to participate in a 90 fishing expedition while the listing agent tries to figure out what the bank is going to take for the property.

He seems like he could be a bit of a nut case.) 

You might bump into some money guys there, know they aren't "private lenders" they are hard money lenders fishing in the waters.You'll also find leaches there, (not a derogatory term) it's very acceptable practice in RE for an experienced person to team up with inexperienced players to get a deal done, these experienced types just leach onto newbies and work deals, there are some who do nothing but leach deals providing themselves with more opportunities with less effort.

welcome .lots of fishes in the sea.

welcome @Wes DurhamI lived in the east valley for years back when the market was going nuts in the early 2000's.

I thought that was nuts. 

Starting over in NC and feel like a fish out of water and more than a tab bit overwhelmed. 

It sounds more like he is fishing for a sucker to make an offer without him giving an asking price or letting you view the property than you dropping the ball.