I have been approached by a Realtor whom I know fairly well asking for me to do a hard money loan for a client of hers.  

We generally invest just south of McHenry as we know that area very well.

We have a 480k mortgage on it, we have a 400k heloc as well that I use for investment purchases and then refinance after we fix up to pay the heloc off.

Dauphin Island doesn't fare well during major storms/hurricanes - severe flooding, erosion, transportation issues, etc.

If I were able to obtain another loan for $200K, even at the same interest, I can pay that down and off over a few years, and then I'm back to my low interest loan only and a ton of equity in the home I could potentially tap into as well.  

Personally I refuse to deal with any of the large banks, (Wells, BofA, Chase) and prefer to deal with smaller regional banks or credit unions.

Do they have a real office, if so go there.This could very well be one of the 70% of wholesale deals that make it to title, but never close.   

I will include my step-daughter as well.

OOrlando is really well build to operate STR in due to the theme parks and the shear number of visitors we have each year, bu there are nuances to operating a successful one and the learning curve can be steep, but rewards can also be lucrative if you are a good operator. 

I'm a little concerned about buying out of state as well.