Our mental model is to have enough that someone arriving late could put together a bare bones meal for dinner and have the essentials for breakfast before they head out to get actual groceries. 

Primarily private lenders (not hard money lenders), will like to be in 1st position. 

Regular schedule updates should be completed to track the progress vs. the baseline agreed upon schedule.

Any other books you would recommend to someone completely new to real estate investing but who would like to build a solid foundation going forward?

I agree completely.

Once the work is complete, inspections from the DOB and DOT will finalize the process.

I completely agree with this.

In one area I rent, you just cannot trust them; over 50% of them have completely bogus data. 

No yeah absolutely, thats why 97% of my money is completely in investments, I have little to know expenses and am extremely frugal with just a simple car investing for my future thanks for the suggestion and everyone else here aswell I think I will continue to do what Im doing until I turn 18 and house hack seems like a great idea!

I am not quite sure what category I fit into since I’m not a completely foreign investor, but I also don’t have a W2 or current residency in the US.Curious if any Lenders here have advice on how to seek financing.