These were plats of subdivisions that were platted and recorded in the early 1900's but never developed and generally owned by one individual or company.

We are a boutique firm in Chattanooga and every agent in our firm is personally involved in either real estate development, owns investment properties or flips homes. 

How much is typical price to pay someone to develop land?

Given your focus on equity and scaling for future development, targeting properties where you can force appreciation through value add renovations seems like a natural fit.

They're already there and given the holiday season, probably the traffic is light, so you can chat then up for 10-15m about the area, rental class, as well as any remarkable developments in the area that would positively impact that home/area. 

We expect to be in a position to redeem your interests in short order, and we will keep you posted, as always, on any developments in this regard.We understand the importance of distributions to our investors and recognize the impact this decision may have on your financial planning.

I intern for a developer, I'm learning so much and one of things I've been noticing is that it seems that all the good deals have been taken lol.

Best bet is likely (not absolute - everyone's situation is different) is to look at a national lender or broker that has options in lots of states - its a great development versus 20 odd years ago, with technology, internet, places like this - can have access to many more options than before (local broker or lender thats it)

Now you have x% of your original property equity, less cash-out fees and however much you need to pay to service the original loan while you're doing business development. 

Quote from @Robert Frazier: It's a banner week for our fledgling development business.