What type of relationship do you seek and what do you think you both bring to the table?

I'm actually doing an exchange for a client right now who's only owned his mountain cabin for a couple of months. 

The $8000 I brought to the table was used for insurance escrow and buying my interest rate down to 2.5%.

In general, but not a definite truth, the buyer who has 20% down will have a better pull-through to get to the closing table.  

People who haven't dealt with rent control directly, don't ever think about the possible upsides for investors, in my opinion.Also, I'd be singing a different tune if they had implemented these rules 3-5 years ago, or if they made the cap like SF or Mountain View.

Also we have mountains and oceans that limit the space that can be developed.

From the lender's point of view, they are taking all of the financial risk in advancing 100% of the total costs.As a general paradigm, you should be prepared to bring a certain amount of the project costs to the table (which will vary somewhat depending on your creditworthiness as a borrower, and also the quality of the deal), and then use a lender to leverage the capital you can bring to bear.Hope this helps,Michael

I have considered going with short term rentals in the more vacation type areas in the mountains, but so far haven't found anything I wanted to pull the trigger on, mostly due to being remote.

My guy is good, but he's also too busy for his own good, and thus leaving money on the table.

More than once I have gone straight from the closing table to the bank to initiate a refi that same day.For now you're probably better off waiting out the 6 months and taking advantage of the better terms you're getting but at some point you will start buying properties using your LLC and embrace the world of commercial loans.