The perceived value may be more, because you know an STR was run there and making money, but a lender wont value it more.While I agree a lender probably won’t value it more, an investor interested in running it as a STR will pay more.  

Going over maps of known repairs with contractors showed that there were a few houses where people tried to have piers installed and ran out of money before hitting stable soil, others in the hyper local area did have to go to 100+ ft.  

Hard money lenders are going to want you to have success and will often times help you see if your numbers are close or way off. 

I understand that you don't pay taxes on borrowed money.   

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

I put a lot of money into my property to make them nice. 

or scammed them on their application fee (like we're going to make a ton of money off those).

And even here, you still need to be "active" to research who you are lending your $$ to, and due diligence on the deal itself prior to investing your money.

Investment Info:Condo private money loan investment.

Plus with rising inflation investors are going to want to park their money in hard assets since historically it's generally a good hedge against inflation.