land development is all local.. no one book will cover your jurisdiction.easiest way to figure it out is to get with a good civil engineer that specializes in the county you want to develop in.. they will know the lay of the land and give you real advice that you can hang your hat on.Or simply walk into the county...

Litigators, etc charge by the hour generally

Because it is going for below market by about 30% and the owners are in the process of securing the access easement, re-zoning, and doing the civil work to prep the lot with driveways and utilities.

Judicial is reserved for properties that have ongoing litigation, title clearing issues, etc.A "power of sale" clause is used in most lender documents when a loan is closed.

I'm an civil engineer but I don't have any experience with real estate other than owning a rental property.

However; your civil engineer should be able to tell you.

efforts to use CA Civil Code to force lenders to give me lawfully required loan statements and payoff amounts as a successer-in-interest, I've yet to succeed.  

Then all of a sudden I got an email to sign a Hold Harmless Agreement, so just to make sure I decided to snoop and ask neighbors and the lady at the city if they knew of any other litigation.

The rates are low, COVID, people are teleworking, inventory is low, stimulus, civil unrest, etc... cause people to move around.  

Never had a problem with this... although there are probably some rules about boxing the stuff up and moving it to storage.. but I figured if they lost the home they generally do not have the money to litigate.. so it was a risk I was willing to take..