Need ideas - can't afford hard money loan

[Jonathon Buder]

Good morning/afternoon everyone.

I have found a property that seems to be a great deal with a lot of potential, but it's by all means a fixer.

The price it's listed for it $250,000. It just got listed yesterday. The estimate from Zillow is $507k, Eppraisal is $530k.

It's a once-high-end house on a big lot with mature trees, bushes, lots of privacy, etc. The pool is full of algae, the inside is full of junk, the carpets and possibly floorboards are ruined because there's a hole in the roof and it's been raining for the last week. The location is wonderful and the median home price is $520k.

I would like to take on the project. Unfortunately, at first glance when I looked at a hard money lender's terms, at 1 year interest-only at 12.5% APR, the payments would be $2604 per month.
Please tell me if I'm doing it wrong ((250,000 * 0.125) / 12)).

I would assume that the after-repairs value would be right around the median price for the neighborhood ($520k), but my intention is to live in it once it's habitable and then rent it out if I have to be an owner-occupant to get better terms on a deal I find in a year or two.

I'm going to have a professional handyman friend of mine go back with me to take a look and get a rough idea of the cost and timeframe to do the repairs.

So my question is this - How can I go about financing $250,000 for a fairly short period of time, during the repairs, and defer the payments or amortize the total amount to be paid over a longer time period?

My first thought was to get a longer-term loan, say 3 or 4 years, for the amount of maybe 6 months' HML payments at $2600/month. This would be manageable and I could pay it off early after I refinanced the property after repairs for a 30-year term.

Then again, long-term financing of a short-term loan sounds dangerous and almost as bad as financing a 'down payment'.

Please share any thoughts you might have. I have a few possible local contacts for a private financing agreement too...

An added complication is that my income is currently $1900/month net, with no housing payments, and in a couple months it will be $3850 but I'll have to move out of the free government quarters.