Hi Vid Vin,I can speak to my experience investing in the Detroit market since 2018.

However, for all we know, this one neighbor could give us high hell - we will ensure we speak to him before. 

You need to look into local community banks and speak with their commercial lenders.

Days on market is about 2 months, slightly better than earlier this year but relatively speaking, it's still a more balanced market compared to rest of the Bay Area.

In working on construction loan financing, the lender informed me I'll need to unencumber that portion of the property (makes sense) before closing on the construction loan.I understand there to be two methods generally speaking: refinancing my mortgage and removing that portion of the property in the process OR attaining a partial release from the lender to remove that land.I *strongly* want to avoid refinancing as I have an amazing rate, but partial releases seem complex and also require a survey.

I'm under the impression that the bank is entitled to have the note fully satisfied (including penality and accrued legal costs) and then the borrower is entitled to any overages.This is why I'm confused...

As you note exiting any RE that does not have some appreciation of a significant amount over say a 5 to 10 year hold generally speaking is going to lead to a loss at sale.

. - First, I recommend speaking with a lender to find out if you can purchase the property in the name of an LLC.

Also keep in mind the feeder speakers are Paid actors so not sure why they would have talked about the method your speaking of..

The instances where I do take the fee are often off market heavy entitlement transactions where I incur significant out of pocket pre-development expenses and use the fee to help with reimbursements.