She gave the example of a friend and their kid betting on whether they'd like a movie or not.

I haven't looked at their calendars recently, but your best bet to find a local meetup are the 3 area REIA's:utahreia.org, nureia.org, slreia.com

@Brian Dombrowski any time you are providing private money, whether for equity or as a loan you best bet is to have a lawyer that specializes in RE draw up the agreement and assist you with the structure.There are a dozens answers to your question depending on many items, with who and if all the investors are under the same LLC etc. etc.Every investor I know that has done private financing had their lawyer draw up an agreement that the "borrower" accepted and signed. 

Today's market is tough in most places; keep looking and don't compromise this is all about making money and I don't bet on appreciation at this stage of the market.

You appear to be a property manager so I'm willing to bet you follow this same process.You appear to live in Pennsylvania so I will tell you what your state law says: Prepaid Rent: A landlord is only allowed to collect up to 2 month’s rent for escrow purposes, 1 month’s rent during any subsequent years. (68 P.S. §§250.511a.)A recent ruling in PA makes clear that it doesn't matter if you call it prepaid rent or last month's rent or security deposit.

Your best bet is probably going to be to look for smaller local banks or credit unions.

Are you willing to bet you would win that court case if you do something different?

If you are betting on a dumb tenant/buyer and dumb judge, that's on you.A sandwich LO with a consumer at the end is not legal because you must have fee title to the property to give a LO.Finally, if you want to do LOs, just do owner financing. 

Be honest with yourself that you're betting on price appreciation and hedging against inflation because the neighborhoods with a large share of 30-somethings renting or owning in it that are fairly safe are going to be about break-even with rent prices at best.

Your best bet would be to partner up.