The other half of the house had carpet and linoleum we took out and has a cement slab underfloor.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like it is cement.

As far as private money lenders, you need to speak to friends, family, business associates, your doctor, dentist, accountant, professionals, etc and let them all know what you do and what opportunities you should have upcoming.

the lawn'Seems that they dug up every last bit of sod and stacked it on the cement pad that should be the parking area!

My dad worked for the fire department and mom was a dentist.

Talk to people in the waiting room at the Doctor and dentist, the airport, restaurants, maybe even Home Depot or Lowes. 

Lamar used to be a two lane highway connecting Memphis to Birmingham (still does) and in this location, the property is surrounded by houses turned into dentist offices, printing shops and off-shoot churches or abandoned. 

-Byron Kearns You want to put the information and numbers into a ONE page presentation - not fancy - just facts - and then show it to every friend, family member, dentist, doctor and businessman that will talk to you.

@Christopher Cosby others with more experience should chime in here on what I am about to say - like @Jay Hinrichs - but you don't really "find" a private lender... usually a private lender is someone already in your network - a trusted business associate, colleague, family member, your dentist, etc.And you can usually find legit HMLs at REIA meetings.  

Cement down drains, seen it.