Going with someone experienced may entail taking the syndication route and becoming an equity partner in someone else's deals.

Your best best would be to try to put some political pressure on him, as others have suggested if you sincerely believe he is asserting the protection in bad faith solely for purposes of delay.  

It’s interesting, there are other threads on this board by some who are totally hung-up, asserting that there is some relevant difference between a private and hard money lender.

I might have just worded different, but would you please explain what exactly that entails? 

If you didn't come from money, then that usually entails hunkering down and busting *** to accumulate money beyond expenses with which you can invest. 

But if you are assertive and aggressive about property management, it can go a long way to keeping people paying.

You can google 4 point inspection to see what it entails.

The buyers agent's main job seems to be asserting their value in a business that has changed drastically over the past 10 years so that they can avoid becoming obsolete. 

The zoning ordinance may not allow that if you are in a zone that only allows single family dwellings.Also, depending on what your suite entails it could fall under a "rooming house".

But personally I'd still stick with rentals, stocks, or other investments as I do not like the idea of owning land for the sake of resaling it and what it entails.