I stumbled upon BP, asked dumb questions, received a lot of great (free) advice and help, and I now own 5 investment properties (2 of which are mid term) along with a current live in flip, continued success in my career and index fund investing, and hit financial independence at 41.

That's why for deals like this, you will see people utilize bridge loans where they will lend up to 75% LTV and fund capex potentially because the property has problems and they are looking more at the future value and operations.

Tyler, I would like more info on the passive 1031 fund...

Under the moon's pale glow we meet,An accord struck without the street.No lender's gaze upon our pact,Just two souls bound by what we act.An owner aids the buyer's quest,What funding source is thus expressed?"

If you have the funds I suggest you get in while you can

There are two idea I’m batting around in my head right now to get started on my REI journey – I can do it purely on the investing side and become a private lender or a source of hard money loans to builders/developers (maybe that looks like funding a construction loan collecting interest payments while buying time to better understand the dynamics and build relationships) or I can JV/partner with a builder and get equity (upside on a flip/sale) which would be more hands on.Curious what ya’ll input, what you think is the best route for me to dip my toes into REI given my aforementioned situation and current market.

(Example 8% pref return, then 80/20 split until achieve 15% IRR, then 50/50)  The main reason most syndicators offer a preferred return is because people that invest in mutual funds feel like they are guaranteed as high a return as they would get in the mutual fund. 

However, not all are well suited for the beginner route, especially if you don't have the lending ability or funds to get into them. 

If so, why not partner with someone else that can help you fund the deal, either 100% or have your money partner fund 20% and a commercial bank fund 80% then flip it and split the profits w/ your money partner at whatever split you all think is most fair? 

I absolutely collected first, last and security for my class-C rentals until NYS prohibited that practice back in 2019.Many tenants cannot manage their money properly, so this mitigates the issue of not being paid last month's rent when they need to move and the new landlord is receiving those funds they have allocated for their housing during the last month of their stay.This was also helpful to me to pre-screen who has their financial house in order and had saved for their moving costs as part of their planning.If I still could, I most definitely would - without exception.