Now all of a sudden, he is being more difficult and wants to complete a site visit to see if I can use this trail for hauling fill.If somehow I get through this latest hoop, my contractor also wants me to get a survey of the county access way to ensure we don't encroach on anyone else's property (which I can understand).Long ways to go, but the cards seem stacked against me.

You also might want to get a survey; to make sure neighbors are not encroaching on your property.

You will have other third party costs that the lender has no control over such as title insurance, survey, homeowners insurance, etc.You should make sure that the mortgage broker is well versed in all types of residential mortgages as you may be able to get other, more favorable mortgages.J

A tree survey might be needed to assess the cost of the removal and possible the permit also. 

To improve the outside design I had the property survey and then petitioned the city to correct the property line for more efficient use of the space.

Just fill in this quick survey and we'll reach out to you if we want to record you on the show!

Not sure where your at in the process, but before you even begin you could blow through a $100k on architect, asbestos testing/remediation, boring/soil test, drafting of plans, numerous surveys, expediting, etc. 

We went through this with a shared driveway a few years ago - no easement could be found, but survey records showed the shared driveway had existed for at least 50 years.

They notated it as "bad remarks" on the survey.

Your architect is going to need the survey, geotechnical report, and program (unit mix, office sf, design styling, desired leasable sf, etc) as they are getting started.