Spend the first few deals just listening and asking questions.

Also, the idea separating them is so you don't accidentally spend them and then no way to pay it back when the time comes.Some states if you don't refund the security deposit within X amount of days, the penality is that you will have to pay back the security deposit x2. 

Private (hard) money might help with renovation but will be pricey.

I happen to be looking for gap funders myself for a number of my house flip projects in Houston, TX and finding gap funders or any kind of private money involves a lot of networking and putting myself out there to meet potential lenders.

Not sure if they would consider that private information or not.

You have zero control over the stock market, whereas when you do private lending, you have significantly higher control and contractually guaranteed return on your money.

You can spend as little as $100 to form an LLC, or you could use an attorney and spend $1,000 or more.

Private Money Lenders (PML): More flexible, relationship-based funding with lower fees.

We discuss spending, net worth, and future investing goals with the cash.

I know it is expected that you will need to spend some money after someone moves out but I just didn't expect I was going to need to spend appx. $10k to get it rental-ready.