I'm currently exploring options for personal loans and know someone in the money lending business who might be able to help.

(saving the money to have your own deal is the worst idea)

Quote from @Irina Badal: I heard for anonymity purpose it’s advisable to set up a personal residence trust.

It allows you to use a small fraction of your own money.

Many banks limit personal loan amounts.

Also, I’m pretty new to this but I’m assuming you’d have to have an LLC in place to accept hard money or money from private lenders? 

I suggest you enter private money goldmine in search botton at top right of the screen and read the previous posts....here is one that gives good perspective as well as a link to legitimate private lenders.http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/1488...

We charge a flat membership fee, rather than taking a cut of any of the money invested. 

This is advantageous bc later you have a third party loan (not your personal money) so seasoning period is 90 days to DSCR out. 

An example of this would be mixing your personal money and LLC money in the same bank account.3.