The difficulty with a blind pool is having investors trust you with their funds without knowing the specific properties and the projected returns.

We are trying to build a network of hard money lenders who are willing to work with newbies with little skin in the game in Houston, TX.

Second, skin in the game.

People are telling me that the market in EP is very slow and I might have difficulty finding a seller.

You see it a lot in old buildings that are remodeled due to the difficulty in adding chases and the desire to leave the structure exposed for aesthetics.

I then performed cash-out refinances to pay off the HELOC loans and lock the properties into a low fixed rate mortgage.The difficulty was, in my own personal experience, doing cash-out refinances is more expensive and the rates are much higher than conventional financing.  

There's been difficulties setting up my checking account at the local bank and rollover of my funds from Fidelity.

She needs to be a grown up and accept that she has skin in this game. 

I had a few friends with properties in Minneapolis and Wisconsin who were having similar difficulties until they found a  local provider.

For you if you self manage, or difficulty finding a company interested in managing if you choose to hire someone.- property is cheap for a good reason...