I need help understanding Hard Money Loans and appraising

[Cody Cummins]

Dear other members of this site,

My name is Cody Cummins and I am a sophomore at Oklahoma State University. After extensively researching the act of flipping homes, I am very interested to flip a house in Stillwater, OK. I had a few questions about Hard Money Loans and also figuring out how a home compares to others around it. If I decided to flip to a home over to a contract investor buyer, how much interest would a hard money loan cost for a couple months? So this would be like buying a $50,000 house and selling it to a CIB for $60,000-$70,000. I had a bit of trouble understanding the interest rates. So it can be an upfront rate of 3%-8% when I receive the loan, plus 10%-15% per year; therefore, if I received a hard money, would it be worth selling to a CIB or should I renovate the house to sell to an ARV of around $120,000.

I am truly trying to articulate this correctly. I am sorry if it comes off a little strange. In summary, my biggest question is would I go into debt if I flipped it for a profit of let's say $10,000 with a hard money loan?

As for appraising by yourself, I would like to see how others do it to the best of their ability. Do you hire an appraiser? Is it worth hiring an appraiser? If you appraise the house by yourself, what strategies and what characteristics do you look at?

I am a total beginner as you can probably tell, but I am very serious in learning how this is all done. However, do you recommend a college 19 year-old self supporting college student with a good credit score should dive into real estate? I can barely pay for my tuition and rent so I just thought this may be a good outlet to look into for extra cash.