Most have a soft spot or two and for some that would be current military or vets. 

I just rented a home out that I soft remodeled to new 3 years ago.

Perhaps mention things to them in passing softly at first.

This is one of the problems with policies that are either boilerplate or not well thought out - they leave you in the difficult position of either appearing soft or appearing unreasonable.

@Lyle McCartee, There is a man named David Bass that knows corporate entities inside and out.

But the huge takeaways from the last market train wreck were that having the soft landing pad of a paid off primary was gold - both for the comfort and security, and because it was the springboard for investing funds when the market turned and it was time to buy.  

If I do get the property under contract I'm 100% sure my partner will buy so I'll be able to soft sell it to him and I'm sure he'll wire the money right in.

Then get a 30yr fixed (soft money) loan on the property.  

10k deposit is on the high end but not unreasonable, as long as it's still soft.

And I find it extremely difficult to understand why they need 50% of the land+construction and 0% soft cost, when other soft money could do 50% land + 100% construction and soft cost.