Or should I ditch this strategy and pursue another (search in more affordable cities, partner up with $$$$$, etc.) 

I suggest you ditch the idea of partnership in all its forms and buy this property by yourself if you even have a property in mind.

In this case hardmoney, personal loans, or rehab loans from a bank would all work fine with some caveats.However, if you're looking at having to make a square peg fit into a small round hole to get a 3rd unit out of it then either ignore the 3rd unit and optimize the first 2, or ditch the deal.

They are a last ditch effort to get you to repair a property that could have serious health and safety issues for your tenant. 

Second you need to ditch your Dallas property unless you are expecting a significant increase in the value to justify an appreciation play.

Otherwise you want to ditch the pool.

Looking back I think a fair analogy is it's like digging a ditch with a spoon, lol.

Ditching you was a huge mistake on his end, he should at least finish the job even if he underestimated the time frame.

When I called Quicken back in early January they said that they weren’t doing a cash out refi‘s on rental properties, but the lender I’m working with now said he could and we moved forward.Should I ditch the lender I’m working with for the better deal with Quicken?

I would prefer to ditch the client-facing and paperwork-heavy tasks of a loan officer and instead do more hands-on, project/property management-related work.