I would rather do this and retain my money then give it to the bank as interest. 

My partner and I keep an excel spreadsheet of rent, our purchases, utilities, taxes, insurance, and money spent on contractors.

  :)  Many Indians send money back home to repay people that bankrolled their studies in Canada. 

Notes are all about velocity of money - faster the money comes in the more valuable the note.

This is why so many people earn large sums of money quickly (lottery, sports, entertainment, etc.) and end up broke.Take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

Don't attempt to figure things out on your own or act as a GC or PM when you are using other people's money. 

Even if you break even, you will lose money every month it sits vacant, when you need repairs, property management, etc.

The expert you are looking for is called a Land Surveyor, they're going to want 5k-15k, if you want to make any money on your project you need to build a house so you also need an architect, they will want 10k-50k, if you're in a hillside zone you will also need a geologist, they're going to want 10k, you will also need a biologist, they're going to want 2k-5k.

Where do you find "local" hard money lenders?

The investor would buy an ugly black box that produced money if it was the right price.