Hard Money if only doing a light rehab?

[Jose D.]

In general, is this a bad idea?

Looking at a triplex in pretty decent shape. Fully occupied so the light rehab wouldn't even be done right away. Would wait and do the rehab as each unit becomes vacant. 

According to the realtor, rent is 1.58% of the listing price. Haven't gotten far enough to negotiate but I'm thinking that can improve. Trying to secure funds for the purchase but I don't have the 20% down for a traditional mortgage (will not be owner occupied). Looking into hard money but I'm concerned that the refinance, if I only get ~75-80% loan to value, won't be enough to pay off the hard money loan and I'll be stuck in it for a while.

So I guess my question is, is hard money really only a good route when the rehab is pretty substantial? Since theoretically 75-80% of the ARV will easily cover the original purchase price of that fixer upper.