All of these people that responded with "why would you pay?"

most people don't know and this might get me in trouble. 

I guess that's part of my question, if you could have the security deposit cover that and people's experiences so I could better prepare myself. 

Hope to get to know more people with the same interest and learn from it, thanks and my most blessing to all.

However I'm thinking if I ever hit the windfall on something like this, their pockets are probably way deeper than mine and I'm not going to want to spend the money to fight it.

Right now, land (unless in a hot market) takes a special type of buyer/developer to turn it into money, so you're better off finding the thing the people with the money want. land tends to sit a long time...

Everyone I have ever talked to (and I know a lot of people in the industry) has only said bad things about those guys.  

@Jake Baker Man, what a tough situation.It’s a real reminder that even with solid plans, even with checking out our numbers a thousand times sometimes completely unexpected disasters can hit hard and mess everything up.

I would say for most people, the 1st position heloc is no a good bet, especially if you have a 1st mortgage rate of less than 5%.Using this strategy with a 2nd position heloc can be just as powerful, so you can have your cake and eat it too!

I FOUND THIS DEAL THROUGH WORD OF MOUTH I WAS TELLING DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN MY CIRCLE I WAS READY TO BUY AND LONG BEHOLD A BUDDY OF MINES WHO IS A REALTOR PRESENTED ME THE DEAL AND LET ME MEET THE OWNER WE HAD A GREAT CONVERSATION AS HE TOURED THE PROPERTY WITH ME HE EXPLAINED HE HAD HIGHER OFFERS BUT BECAUSE HE SEE IM A YOUNG GUY DOING THE RIGHT THING HE REALLY WANTED TO SELL IT TO ME AND THE REST IS HISTORY !