Conventional loan at a bank or private money?

[Amalfi Duran]

I am trying to buy a small multi-family property out of state. I do qualify for a regular mortgage with 20% down payment; however, some of the deals I see at BP are done with private money. Since I have little experience, I am kind of worried that if I go for private money and get a contractor to fix a distressed property, I may be at risk of being in trouble since I might not get an adequate contractor and I won't be able to monitor what they are actually doing because I am out of state. What would you do in my case?

this out of state.