It mentions a balloon payment penalty but no mention of additional interest accrued from the maturity date until he actually pays off completely.

When I received the final paperwork I noticed my minimum monthly payment was "the greater of $100 or the accrued finance charge, plus any fees and amounts past due." 

I've been reading old posts about the "real estate professional" status (of which there are many) but it isn't clear to me if flippers can utilize losses from their rental properties if they don't self-manage their properties (which would help them accrue "material participation" in the rentals).I currently work a W-2 job and have 17 rental units which generate a decent amount of paper losses each year via depreciation. 

In parallel to my day job I started investing in commercial real estate in Michigan in 2014, a year out of college, and had accrued 30+ units.

I think you are right in my needing to expect and prepare for future maintenance i am going to increase both repairs and capex to about 10% respectively and focusing during the first few months on building a bit of an "emergency fund" to cover unexpected costs if any occur before my capex and repair budgeting accrues enough to cover something like that.Thanks very much for your guidance!

You DO want to add the flip properties to your bookeeping asset inventory as they are acquired and accrue all direct property costs you incur until the property is sold. 

I house hack myself and consider it a great way to invest in real estate and slowly accrue property over time.

Unless you have already identified some opportunities, you may be sitting a while on that cash so that the interest cost will be accruing while your funds remain unused.I do not know the Provo market (I am sure others on here can give you more granular advice) but am generally a fan of real estate investing in college towns - vacancies tend to be few and far between as demand almost always outstrips supply. 

So @James Mc Ree, I have a hard money loan, is there a right or better way accrue value for the property for external cosmetic upgrades for the hard money lenders who will be appraising the property? 

I have about $14,500 in student loan debt, and because of COVID my first payment date along with further interest accruing has been paused until late November.