How much and how often do you use hard money lenders?

[Aaron Howard]

1. If i have cash available, should i use as much of my own cash as possible to keep carrying costs down in a deal or should i use their cash to reduce my risk of losing my own?

2. Their are plenty of Hard Money lenders out there....so i have used one successfully here in my local market that went smoothly at 12% and 1 point. I know i could find cheaper, but having a relationship with my local guy does give me a slight feeling of comfort. Should i continue to use him or seek out cheaper money?

Thanks for your input.