The project is building a strip shopping center, with mainly fast food tenancies.

You can then post ads in the coffee shops and hangouts close by or even see if you can strike up a conversation with a techie and get the information you are looking for. 

First I read somewhere, maybe here, that HGTV was shopping experienced flippers for a TV show, but when the flipper showed up he found that he was just an advisor to actors.

Shop around and talked to as many lenders as you can.

You just need a shop vac and suck out everything in the pipe and should be fixed. 

Typically these will be in good school districts (think Richwoods or Dunlap school districts) or close to jobs and shopping, etc.  

The easiest way to spot a want-to-be wholesaler is when they insist on meeting you at a coffee shop because they don’t have an office.We require our potential buyers to meet us at our office so we can prove to them we’re not one-course-wonders and are in business to establish long-term relationships.

Located on a quiet all-townhouse street, yet within a few minute's walk of public transportation, shopping, parks and nightlife.

I will never shop there again.  

Speak to some other lenders, shop around.