It can be money from a private lender, like a friend, relative, colleague or stranger; or it can come from a broker who has many people who are private lenders, looking to put money into a loan that earns them a good return, or money from insurance companies, hedge funds and the like.  

@Dakoda SpencerFirst off, I commend you for being as honest as you have been, especially with total strangers, many who have already judged you without taking the time to learn much about your situation so they could have judged fairly.Second, I don't think you should stay in a job you hate.

Get real, people don't start spewing personal information about the condition and layout of their home to a stranger. 

Even OPM is hard, imagine asking a stranger for 100k?

Never trust strangers, if you are going to screen do it yourself or don't bother wasting your time screening at all.

Family, friends, strangers all of the same level of trustworthiness without a legal contract.

I do NOT offer condolences to strangers as I think it comes across as insincere. 

I should also add that I am no stranger to hard work, so this is not an issue of wanting everything to come easy.

and renting out the rest of her own home to strangers.

hi, everyone.i've done one property thus far. we used hard money to get into a deal and employed the BRRR strategy.for the next property i'm unsure we'll have enough capital on hand to do a repeat—much of it is tied up in the previous deal that had lots of learning we ended up paying for. as such, i'm attempting to get creative with financing instead of simply waiting on the sidelines.i'd love to hear from people who have raised small funds from friends, family, or even strangers. what sort of terms did you use?