Investors/hard money lenders

[Ryan Gandy]

Hello BP community, my wife and I just moved to the Cincinnati area from the DC metro region and we are just starting our real estate investing journey. My wife has bought, rehabbed and sold 3 homes, but those were primary residences. We are currently looking for fixer upper properties to flip with the goal of eventually buying and holding. We are looking to flip initially because we do not have a lot of cash on hand to buy property, but we do have a second home in Virginia with equity that we could potentially use to fund our purchases. However, I have no experience using home equity to buy other properties, so if anyone has any advice on that option please weigh in. 

That said, has anyone here used investors or hard money lenders in the Cincy area and if so, what has your experience been? Can you recommend any lenders or investors? Any other advice would be much appreciated!