The future extension of Grand Parkway will run adjacent to the property.

If something major comes up you can ask for an extension to bring in a contractor.  

For instance say you're putting 20% down, and it's $100k property.

Well, if you are going to have them hard money lend, just one person, then I would probably go with the note and mortgage and I would offer something like 10% interest for 1 year with a 6 month extension option for an additional 2 points or something like that.

For instance, the Bay View I grew up in was drastically different than the one you see today.

I have extensive experience in this. 

Account Closed  well George  not sure I am broke and or whatever you insinuating.. last I checked I had more than a few hundred in my checking account.my point was same as yours... buying a rental is not appropriate in this instance.. creating more income to payoff debt like DR would suggest is appropriate.. and if you have a bent towards real estate ,  since this is  real estate site after all.. earning commission using said commission to pay down debt .. and learn the industry is not a terrible way to go.. but really any high paying commission job will do the trick..

We had a fairly extensive thread on this not too long ago. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/67/topics/463525-any-tips-re-aligning-interests-when-partnering-w-builder

When you have that in hand ask the owner to call his foreclosing lender right away and ask for an extension considering that he has a buyer in hand.

So, for instance, you could serve notices for all of the above issues at the same time.