:lol: How do you distinguish between the two?

Your question, @Shanna Zeiset, and some of the responses here, are good examples of why it's dangerous to distinguish between a hard and private money loan.

This is very important to distinguish because if you have income resulting from the property and you have expenses, you can write off expenses to the extent of your income (I believe this is accurate but someone correct me if I am wrong please) but you may be limited in your ability to deduct your losses against other taxable income resulting from your "other career".

This way you will learn to distinguish the good from the bad and therefore prime your way to healthy returns.

:)Yes, Bill Gulley is hitting that nail right on the head; computer software these days can alter the document so well that you would have a hard time distinguishing a falsification.

Labels, titles, descriptions, etc are used to distinguish one group from another.  

Most delinquent taxes are mailed to so if you are interested in one property you can distinguish yourself by being unique and not a normal yellow letter.

On the other hand, well-done desert architecture, landscaping, and vibrant colors are awesome, and frankly a very easy way to distinguish yourself from the million or so "meh" properties around the valley.  

You'll need to distinguish between what deductions affect your qualification and which are irrelevant.- full disclosure: I do work as a loan officer day to day

The general public though can have a hard time distinguishing between a good agent and a bad agent.