The drawback is you need to build trust and relationships upfront.Both have their place, but private money tends to offer more flexibility, while hard money is more structured and accessible if you lack personal connections.

They are being offered discounted rent, free gym memberships, free cable, etc.

Unless you are someone who is going to take advantage of the leverage offered in an FHA loan, I am generally in favor of purchasing investment real estate in an LLC.  

So you're going to get responses from a lot of people that offer coaching.

Traditional bank loans can be slow and have strict requirements, while hard money and private lending seem to offer more flexibility.For those who’ve secured funding before, what’s been your experience?

Quote from @Catherine Ding: My PM company is offering to do it for a high fee of $100/month so I'm trying to find alternative options.

I will start from the offer stage. 

If I have a capital provider whom wants to be 100% passive and is ready to invest $100k with me (cash), and I have all the syndication structure and offering documents for this project... can’t I just find an accredited investor, present them the deal / get them on board, and go through them?

That doesn't surprise me about NJ, knowing what I do as a person who's lived in the tri-state area for 25+ years, especially since becoming a father and coming to truly appreciate what NJ has to offer offer.

We walked through a property that we went into thinking we were not going to like it and we ended up loving it and jumping on it pretty quickly after because the seller was getting other cash offers and the price/location/set-up of the property just fit our situation well.