Right now, investors are so starving for yield, that they are willing to throw their money at pretty much anything without even investigating the pros and cons.

You may also consider investing under Roth IRA or Roth Solo 401k, here you are paying taxes upfront, but will never have to pay taxes on any gains or profits.If you use Solo 401k, even though it is retirement account, you still could access your funds up to $50K any time for any reason via Participant Loan feature.And I agree with Guatam that you should investigate other investment options such as notes, etc.Do your due diligence, you've got several things to consider here, but there are surely some good options available to you.

As such, it has taken a considerable toll on the quality of my life outside of work.While doing some research, I came across this site and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of information that is being provided (for example the Ultimate beginner's guide to RE Investing) and the willingness of participants to provide advice to others.In order to alleviate amount of time that my work consumes, I wanted to investigate going into Private Lending to slowly supplement my income.

I will do more investigation and due diligence and return with more info. 

If you are doing a commercial loan the lender likely will not care or investigate were the down payment money comes from.If you are doing a residential loan the lender absolutely is going to want to know where the money came from.

The rule is just a quick calculation to determine if the house might be a deal and worth further investigation.

They are specialized private investigators who can/will dig up contact info for a small fee.  

It is certainly worth investigating further.

Those are the minimum, so next you would want to investigate similar properties in the area to what you would build.  

This is a beautiful example of contempt prior to investigation.