While both involve finding and properly securing a site and bringing it to full entitlement, the ground-up process includes the land piece but gets way more involved and complex to execute.The full "Monty" for ground-up development needs to include financial literacy, an explanation of metrics, and how they work.

Pros include securing the desired property and strategic planning, while cons involve higher costs, financing challenges, and complexity.

Also, securing financing is no different than site built unless you're dealing with  someone that has no experience originating loans. 

With your point, it seems like living security of 'where's next' for them will be the biggest obstacle for the seller to overcome.

@Joy McQuearyRecommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

In the lease it states that a security deposit of 1 months rent was collected. 

You started with the $ you saved that had effect of securing just 1 property.

Many large private lenders will work with smaller lenders as correspondents.

Hello, we have a. apartment complex in LA County and want to install security cameras in the common areas.

This is often achieved with written documentation, such as a formal ROW request from TxDOT or other correspondence indicating that condemnation proceedings were possible if no settlement was reached.