Each lender gave me a different answer about the terms of the loan such as required down payments, max loan amounts, and a few other things.

If you have $25-30k to sink in start up costs, it would be advisable to save up and use the money as a down payment on a turnkey furnished property. 

This is sometimes called the "Enemy Method," and you can search for more details.3.

If you had 80-100k for down payments, what were your move be, as a first time investor?

As long as you're making payments on time and have proper insurance on the property, banks are happy and don't want to call a loan due. 

There are methods.

If so, and you get a reasonable 7% loan on the $375k your payment will be $2496/mo.

Now private lenders are my main purchase method, along with seller financing and BRRRR.

The facts that she was late twice and didn't even attempt to make a partial payment or talk to you says it all. 

You can write off everything still, its actually better if flip takes more then a year as you can make it look like a long term capital gain, need a investor friendly CPA who isn't afraid to do what gets you the lowest tax payments.