Well, I'm not gonna beat you to leave you sitting there in pain.

It utilizes money sitting in your checking account to good use AND  you still have access to the HELOC, line of credit to pay off expenses and other costs.  

So we either sit tight or we don’t renew the tenant so that we can place a new tenant at current rates.  

They look like they are sitting on wooden piers and not on a slab or perimeter foundation.As far as lenders are concerned, that could impact the financing.

Its got to be better than sitting at a job. 

Why take a larger risk when you are sitting great?  

I would probably go with a HELOC as you won't have to pay for what you're not using unless you've got a specific property you're going to be buying with that money so you know you won't just take out the loan and sit on it paying interest all the while. 

And in fact, we are just sitting and holding onto lots until they are able to be fully permitted already as is.

Nothing wrong with partnerships - I have used one to scale way faster than I would have on my own because he brought skills I didn’t have - but if you can do a deal on your own first to get a better understanding of the entire process it may help you identify what you need from a partner and what types of things should be in the operating agreement.As for the operating agreement, be sure you sit down with an experienced attorney who will help go over the dozens of scenarios that may come up and how you would like to handle them. 

Lot of the issue stems from pillars / blocks that sit on top of the soil in the crawl.