What kind of lender and loan do I need?

[Steve S.]

Looking for advice, please.

• I'm a US expat living abroad. 
• US taxes get filed every year, but no W2s - all income is foreign.
• US credit is excellent. 
• I have one SFH and want to buy more for buy-and-hold.

• One lender has gone AWOL for a month after I submitted conventional income docs - they simply stopped responding to emails, texts, and calls. Is this unusual?

• A hard-money lender is offering a line of credit of 500k with 2 points to be paid up front for the line, another 3 points for actual draws on the line for purchases at 9.75%, and another 1 point for each refi, currently at 3.5%.
  

Do I need a hard money lender? How do those terms compare with what's out there?

Is there a different kind of lender and loan I should be looking at?

Thank you.