The other option is to use a conventional loan but hard money/private money for the down payment.

The biggest deal is we've been able to upgrade our primary home thru flipping and now have a considerable equity in it.

Would a hard money lender or Private Lender be a good source of funding?

What's the biggest thing you learned from your first deal?

At $1.2MM, there better not be much public improvement, utility, or private facilities required.- For something small like this, you're gonna need someone local who's more of a boutique developer. 

You can talk to a private investor, but not sure I see a big enough profit in your deal to take it on.Start living like no one else does, get a second job or a better job, so you can save $20-30K and you can make this happen.I've had to pass on two deals 'cause I didn't have the cash to put 'my skin in the game' (just put $70k into buying a primary residence).

If this is a Private Lender Loan then you usually only make interest only payments.  

If you do have a HELOC or private money, that would be better/cheaper.

My biggest drive in life is to make the world a better place.

You can invest in others and their projects as a private lender.