If you are doing volume, find an agent who will slash their fee and hope they can capture the buyer. 

In reference to finding the best contractors, I highly recommend networking and getting to know high volume investors in your area and asksing them for recommendations.

Unlike some people, I believe HOA is good costodian often finances, get volume discounts, do the effort of hiring contractors and maintain common space so in that regard I consider them a value. 

Using the question of if you have $1million in cash with $1million in loans at 8%, if you hedge 20% of your loan volume and that guaranteed rate is subpar from the other $800k invested.

The property is in an area with low sales volume.

Hi @Blake WilliamsI own a brokerage and have worked with most of the largest hard money lenders in our space and at a high volume level.

Ask about lead volume, deals per month, as well as cost and timeline.

Having the time to get to an acceptable volume of deals.

June and July volumes have bounced back nicely.

Newer ones (2008+) are suffering from seasonality now but will pick it up in Q3-Q4: if you look at historical data, Miami Dade county has always had seasonality low volumes during summer time, due to hurricane season, holidays and less tourists visiting.