Long-term private money?

[Taft Love]

After spending a couple of weeks meeting with lenders, investors, and wholesalers, I've seen some patterns start to emerge. One of them is that many investors are stuck using hard money. This is fine if the deal pencils when hard money is included, but it significantly limits the range of deals into which investors can get involved.

This has me thinking about other options that might exist. The one that keeps coming to mind is private money that is borrowed with different terms. 

I have to imagine that a talented investor would have the ability to find a private lender who would give them a healthy line of credit—at something like 9%—that could be used to purchase and rehab prior to refinancing out.

Has anyone had luck finding private money at better rates or with better terms than normal hard money?