Does anyone have advice on approaching private lenders for a specialty product like a commercial to residential bridge loan? 

@Bud Dwyer Water under the bridge at this point.  

Joe Henry what Jeff Bridges said.

It comes down to having 3 bridges and having to burn one of them.

Some banks offer a "bridge loan" for rehabs.

When they leave the store they are supposed to take them in order from time.What happens in the real world is the tippers who tip 4 to 5 bucks get it first in 20 minutes as the driver wants them to keep ordering.The driver delivers to the person who tips 1 to 2 bucks last because they are cheap and the driver hopes with a luke warm pizza they won't order as much or go away all together.I know this because I was int he restaurant business for over 10 years.If you are cheap or try strategies that burn bridges it will catch up to you and cost you way more in the long run.If you are doing a one off deal where you buy and house to live in for 5 to 10 years then it is not as much to worry about.If you are buying properties in an area as an investor you want to develop a good rep.You will drive a great price when you buy but there is a nice way to do it and another way that will get you remembered in a bad way for a long time.Hope it helps from years of experience in the business.

So I bridged the divide by giving the seller three months of rentals AFTER buying the house.

Jeff Bridges I will move on and thanks for the advice, I will focus on another property, it is Bait and Switch because he did try to offer me another property after I suggested I was not a cash buyer.

She burned that bridge so I don't have that leverage either. 

I like Waco because the prices seem reasonable compared to my city, plus I strongly believe that anything along the IH-35 corridor that bridges the gap between major metros (so Waco/Temple between Dallas and Austin and San Marcos all the way down to San Antonio) will inevitably grow.