Next Step: With with sparkies quote, I'd get that quote over to sellers and with an amendment all written up ready for there signing giving me a credit at closing for exactly that amount. 

So I want purchase it as my first rental property it's going to need rennovations for sure not terrible shape just older rancher home.

To answer your questions here though:Alternative options - I was going to sell all my stocks and etfs, take out a HELOC, and some credit cards to try to shoestring together enough to the deal without a hard money loan. 

Credit cards have the same limitation on the amount you can borrow and will likely end up costing more than private lenders.

good for padsplit terrible for anyone who has to live near one..

There are good relations with the neighbor so this likely wouldn't be terribly difficult to pull off, but I haven't ever developed a property from scratch so I would definitely like the opportunity to partner with someone on this to help ensure the success but first I want to finish the smaller property to have sufficient funding available if it is needed.

@Angel Mora We just had a terrible experience with them in Detroit.

Seller financed (probably) won't be reported to the credit bureaus and so won't impact your credit score at all.

Quote from @Chris Magistrado: This is a terrible idea.87% of all real estate agents quit within two years.

There are a lot of affordable properties in Knoxville, but the growth isn't terribly vibrant and the deman isn't what you'd expect for a city of that size and that close to the Smokies - you're mostly looking at college rentals for the meat of the move season, and the SF market, while it exists, doesn't really compare to Chattanooga.