Shay, the problem is the lender wants to make sure you qualify for the conforming mortgage after you get the house rehabbed and rented, so you have an 'exit plan' for getting out of the hard money loan.You will have to focus on getting your financials in order so that you qualify for a conventional loan,,,then you can get the hard money loan.I have heard of people getting loans in a business name, or credit cards, which will be personally guaranteed by you, but don't show up on your credit report, thus don't show up when they figure your debt to income,,,,but that is really just a trick to temporarily help you get a loan,,,the main goal i getting your DTI in order

By taking a heloc won't it hurt your dti temporarily?

The disadvantages are that you  can lose a bit of control temporarily like you cant sell for 9 years(example), you cant rent the home out must use as primary, you cant sell for a profit within X years, must share some of your profit if you sell within X specified time period, or other.At the end of the day the benefit must make sense with your strategy definitely pay attention.

Only in markets where wholesaling is considered "illegal" that you would need hard money to temporarily buy a house and then sell it immediately to an end buyer on the same day.Hard money lenders can be used for almost any type of investment involving real estate. 

Did tenants have to temporarily relocate or how was that handled?

Hopefully you'll be able to move downstairs temporarily while you do that?

I think another piece has been temporarily added to the mortgage puzzle.

@Joyce Kim if this will be a residential small rental (not commercial) and you don't have unrelated partners,  all an LLC will do (especially SMLLC) is limit your financing options, weaken your title chain and hazard/title insurance when you quitclaim, complicate your tax reporting and give you a new and unnecessary annual $800 bill from CA.  

ShopeRyan, I met Cole last Monday at are local BP Meet-up, he is local and working a BRRR Duplex now and has other Buy and HOlds.Cole, Ryan is my grandson who is temporarily out in San Diego.  

We can temporarily install a window air conditioner, but hot weather is not the norm in our area and AC is not required, so most people do fine with just the fans.