Fielding emails and texts are fine, but to work more professionally, I'd like to start using a more formal approach.

Even Especially if you are borrowing from friends and family, you should use formal lending agreements and register the lien against the property (mortgage) to provide security to your lenders.

Particularly on the Maryland side of the border, the state of Maryland no longer allows agents to be involved in the negotiation process with the bank....this has dramatically increased the degree of difficulty in getting a short sale through.

And it is not customary to pay the lender for the appraisal if a formal appraisal was done. 

In this priticular situation we will be flipping the home so I'm not as concerned about any due on sale clause the sellers mortgage holder might have but I will still go through the formality so I have multiple exit stratugies.

This time around , I want to improve my project management flow by having a more formal contract and estipulations as to the work quality , delivery expectation and payments.

Filing the Property Transfer Affidavit is a (required) formality that may or may not get done that changes the record of the assessor.

What is frustrating are the those with much less experience dealing with law, those who have no or very little formal education in RE and law, with little finance experience much less compliance experience who do set out opinions, especially in areas that may be off the conventional path which the call "creative financing". 

I went to school back in 2009 and became a certified computer repair technician in hopes of using it as a stepping stone to go back to school and formally get the education I didn't get because I didn't see the value of school then.

PTSD dogs used by veterans ARE considered service animals and are generally formally trained.