Guaranty personally and with their business across all locations not just a remote entity they set up for this property that they can easily bankrupt and walk away from.You could put a stipulation in for tenant owed leasing commission that say out of 20,000 owed 5,000 would be paid upfront upon lease execution with non-refundable good faith deposit from the tenant and then remaining 15,000 would be paid out as monthly installments over the primary term of the lease.

If they set up a single remote entity LLC they can bankrupt it and walk away without affecting the other locations or parent company.See if lease has them disclose sales?

None of those bankrupt people thought they needed a factor of safety either.   

Look at NYC, It was bankrupt 20 or so years ago.

I used to liquidate real estate assets for bankrupt retailers and we would do it this way. 

They already understand they'd be walking away with zero but its better than going bankrupt on a house they can't afford. the home has beautiful upgrades and really nothing else needs to be done other than the foundation and chimney. the last owners pretty much fully renovated everything except the foundation and sold it like that. my question is this: with only about $20k in potential profit on this one, would i stand a good chance of pitching this one to some hard money lenders and getting the financing?

For example; if you are over/under on a property and your LLC goes 'bankrupt' the bank will still come after you personally for any outstanding debts associated with the LLC (because you have to sign as a guarantor on the mortgages that are in the LLC name).An LLC is only there for liability claims... banks will still get their money from you even if the property and note are in the LLCs name.

For us, we knew absolutely that we wanted to start creating passive income.And since we were COMPLETE newbs, we went for a small rental property that really only needed cosmetic updates (paint, carpet, etc.) because 1) we new if things hit the fan, we wouldn't go bankrupt or fall into massive amounts of debt and 2) it was "controllable" in that we didn't have to worry about major plumbing, electrical, or structural issues. 

A subdivision went bankrupt and there are lots selling at a discounted price. 

It is a little challenging to discuss the renovations with my wife as she is a Worry Wort and as soon as I discuss renovations she automatically goes to "this is too much money, and we can't afford it, and were going to go bankrupt, and were ruined forever" fortunately I am able to brush off my old PhD education and qualm the mini anxiety attack and return her back to base line.