As a few mentioned, depending on your situation you might have to do a DSCR Cashout (vice conventional investment), and with hard money loans often there is a pre-payment penalty.

A HYSA pays 4.5-5%(before rates went down) pre-tax, 3% net tax if you're a high earner. 

2) Are you pre-approved and have the down payment in your bank account?

Start networking with local agents and investors for insights, and talk to a lender to get pre-approved to understand your budget.

I haven't hit it hard yet this year,  trying my hand at pre-foreclosures.I don't use a CRM, I'm hand writing letters and reaching out according to a criteria I dictated.  

The idea is to convert a multi-family building into condos; but not in the traditional sense where you separate pre-existing apartments into their own condos; but in a way where you combine the common areas of all of the apartments in that whole building, and turn the individual rooms within those apartments into condos themselves; thus transforming the hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, porches, balconies into common areas of the condos. 

The one guy I spoke with said they make money only when they sell to potential investors and they only sell new construction homes that are usually pre-leased to buyers (currently they are building in Texas state and Missouri State).

Your goal is to plant the idea in their mind and create a situation where selling to you feels like the easiest and most logical solution for them.If you haven’t already, the first step is to get pre-approved for a mortgage so you know what you could afford if you were to purchase the property conventionally.

They're pre-finished RTA, and it's usually only ~$100-150 per cabinet to install.

I've found this to be super helpful: When someone inquires about the property Thank them and Send them the pre-requirements (Income, credit, no evictions) and ask if they meet them.