They sold themselves as a fast hard money lender, but were slow and required more paperwork than any bank.

I think BRRRR is a really powerful strategy to grow your wealth fast even tho the cashflow is minimal in the beginning ( giving that you will be 100% leverage if is done correctly).  

It is never fast.  

You either need to become an expert and do SEO yourself or hire an agency that has a complete plan and roadmap for getting you to a place where organic motivated leads are flowing to your site at a rate where you are taking down profitable deals each monthMike Plactere of We Buy Long Island Homes Fast is a perfect case study of someone who used this approach and is dominating his market.  

Especially the new models that are very fast very heavy.. etc..just a disaster waiting to happen.

We also initially were only going to exterior paint as needed but ended up Repainting full exterior. it was shocking to see how fast the money was going out.  

And it needs to happen fast, before end of this month. 

There is a lot more that should be said, but I would say figure out your time horizon for buying a property, North or West SA, find what purchase price you can afford, how much you can put towards a rehab, how fast can the rehab be done, and your exit strategy for when it is flipped.

Two months goes by (not fast service which they advertise) and I begin to receive declined credit card inquires in my mail including one even stating "no third party applicants please apply on your own" so now I'm skeptical ESPECIALLY when I'm assured by Bernie that Seek has a "GREAT relationship" with these lenders.

I think you are going too rouge too fast over something that has not materialized into anything major.