Anyway, I appreciate the civil debate.  

Lenders will offer lower leverage on land than most other assets and expect to front the diligence, civil and architectural fees to entitle the land which is where you create value.

You can read the details in the link belowhttps://californiadeckinspection.com/california-sb-721-law/I would be interested to get any recommendations on licensed civil/structural engineers in San Diego area, along with recommended contractors that specialize in decks/balconies.Also, if anyone has done the inspections already, would love to get feedback on how everything went, and anything in particular to look out for? 

Yup watch american greeds episode on Remington financial and google ingrid Robinson to see how these scammers operate.. its always tomorrow and its always some other excuse.. they suck you in with rates below market and well we all want to hope its true but its not its a scam.. and generally you will see on the American Greed episode the dollar amounts per individual borrower is small under 10k so no authorities really are going to look into it.. it too small to litigate over so the money is gone the deal cancels for non performance and the Investor/ borrower many times losses their EM and their due diligence money spent.

Talk to planning first. if you get good results.. go hire a good civil engineer that also has a land planner on staff and off you go.

I've been looking at properties in Puerto Vallarta where my family is from and my uncle is a civil engineer.

I would sue in Civil Court.

Lenders will lend at significantly lower LTV's, particularly for the unentitled land and the buyer of the land will usually have to front all of the design related fees (civil, architectural, structural, MEP). 

Be civil but firm and let them know that you will need this paid for.

Litigation is time consuming, expensive and without guarantees.