New York is hard to evict people and you'll end up spending more time and money doing it yourself.

As for being a hard money lender.

I don’t want the property to appraise low and not have enough money to get when I cash out.

He has been saving his money for years and has plenty of money saved but no experience with real estate investing.

I never even would've thought of that.I think you need help with just money management. 

My conversion rate was higher because they kind of look like a wedding invite.In regard to lenders, join meetups and local facebook groups and ask for referrals.I’m doing larger commercial deals now and found I wasted a Ton of money on direct mail.

You could also try looking up money judgements filed against local businesses at the magistrate level and target them with direct mail or driving for dollars. 

Quote from @Michael Challenger: I would connect with local people at meetups, that might give you some contacts for private money.

You can try to pursue them for a money judgment, but how will you collect?

If you make good money doing that, do it again a year or two later.