As Sean above alluded to- never pay a seller for your future hard work, risk and stress. 

There is one and only one insurance company in town who will insure the property due to its fire risk.

I used the concept to do arbitrage on 3 more of his properties and then transitioned to more of a management model in 2020 to offset my risk.

There are best practices on certain items that provides a guidelines.Commissions are always negotiable like any other services, you can shop around for the best value for money.All depends on the risks that you are willing to take.

Hard money loans offer fast approval and don't risk personal assets but come with high-interest rates and fees, which can be tax-deductible as carrying costs.

By buying mortgages, Fannie and Freddie reduce risk for lenders.

I'd like a Seller carried note to cover the down payment for my hard money loan. 

Way too much risk. 

Additionally, there's growing interest in cryptocurrency as an alternative asset class, though it comes with higher volatility and risk.

It is pretty low risk from my viewpoint.Then, after you've sold the first property, you could buy another home that needs to be fixed up, live in it as your primary residence, rehab it, and sell it again after living in it for 2 years as your primary residence out of the last 5 years.