Which will also depend on the neighborhood.You want to, "rehab/maintain to the Neighborhood".Most investors go overboard on their first rehab and waste a decent amount of money.

My broker advised me to "bite the bullet" and close the deal, telling me that I should be glad I wasn’t losing money on the deal.

In the meantime I would put the money in a low risk account gaining 4-5% which for $250k would be around $1k/month.

You must must disclose to the seller everything including that you are selling it to someone else and how much money you are selling it to that end buyer.

Do not waste your money on his course.  

A couple of months ago, I purchased a property using a hard money loan for $115,000.

However, there are other loans designed for fixer uppers referred to us hard money loans, bridge loans, or fix and flip loans but whatever you want to call them they're essentially short term, interest only loans with no prepayment penalties designed to finance a higher % of your purchase price and typically all of your renovations not to exceed a certain % of the ARV (typically 75% max). 

If not, ride out the 12 months with the hard money lender.People have to make good choices and not over extend themselves just for the sake of buying something they really can't afford or that doesn't make good cash flow.

We then use our money for the improvements.

Making money was a bonus because I live here.How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?