(Source Calif Civil Code 1916.1.)The OP's loan does not appear to involve a broker and is not secured by any collateral whatsoever, hence the reason I made the comment I previously did. 

This developer was sitting on some land that had water access and he negotiated a trade for his water rights, in order to get the golf course land he wanted. 

Easy, Avoid the safe harbor and look at the factor that its more than likely a trade or business.   

But that doesn't necessarily eliminate the possibility of some form of trading real estate property.

My name is Glenn and, according to the webinar I watched, in order to make all my wildest dreams come true I need to start networking with a post in here.I'm tired of my 9-5 and want to stop just trading my time for money. 

Local magistrate couldn’t/wouldn’t help whatsoever.

.- My wife fully owns a property that she rents out for $2000 with equity available of $350k- Our combined income from employment is $280k- Our combined credit card debt $15,900 both at 0% rates- Monthly credit card spend of $1500-$1800 (includes groceries, cell phone bill, cable, shopping etc)- $800 vehicle insurance per year- Savings of $80k- Combined 401k/IRA/just for fun trading accounts of $275k- We have 2 toddlers that we would like to provide for with long term assetsSeeking to purchase a new construction property as either new primary home or investment with a purchase price of ~$1M in our city and 10 year tax abatement.

You seek out deals though whatever means appeal to you (snipe signs, cold calling, buying a list of non-owner occupied homes looking for the ones that want to sell, driving around looking for properties, working with attorneys, calling people that are going into foreclosure,  or working other wholesalers to learn the trade, etc).They key is that you have to find deals that have a lot of 'meat on the bones' where there will be sufficient equity in the deal to cut you in, plus your investor says, 'Wow, thats a great deal."  

Others are more merchant developers or serial deal-doers who impute a lot of value through their effort and are looking to beef up fees in trade for their time. 

There are some mortgage people that just take fees knowing lender will re-trade or not loan at all.