BRRR - Short Term Money vs. My Own Cash

[Jesse Watson]

Hi everyone! First post here! Excited to become a part of the BiggerPockets community!

I'm a tech guy looking to invest some of his stock in real estate. Going to combine my new member intro with a question...

My wife and I are looking to try to the BRRR method to buy and rehab a property for short term rental purposes. We are in Washington near Seattle, but we want to buy in Phoenix. Over the next few years we want to use it ourselves from time to time... Long term we may become snowbirds and move in, or just sell it and buy elsewhere. We're using this property to test the waters to see if we want to lean into real estate investment more as a financial strategy

In about six months I'll have some stock maturing that we can use to put 20% down on a conventional loan, or we could move sooner and use a hard money lender... Is there any advantage of a hard money lender vs. not simply waiting until we have the cash to finance a conventional loan? I know that a hard money lender is sometimes necessary for getting a loan on "yucky" properties that a bank won't issue a loan for, but are there any other advantages of hard money (besides moving more quickly) if we are doing more of a cosmetic rehab, or adding amenities? Are there advantages of a conventional loan?

Right now, our main goals are to get educated, and maybe connect with a local real estate person and property management company with experience in short term rentals in the Phoenix market.

Thanks,
-Jesse