Private Money vs Hard Money:Primate money is negotiable.

If you go with the partnership route1) You need to manage the money going in and out of the business bank account.2) File a partnership return and be responsible for issuing K-1's3) make distributions to you and your partner for cash flow that you receiveYou will likely spend many hours on a nice gesture.I may want to consider instead to give a christmas gift or a bonus for early completion of projects.

That would be a helpful addition to your plan as you would further reduce your cost of living.Also don’t forget from that $600 you are planning on getting in cash flow you have taxes, insurance, maintenance, capex, and vacancy to consider.With two homes, you may want to keep that extra $20k as an emergency fund rather than spending it on a third property and then be left with no emergency funds.

However, building relationships with private money lenders can help you scale your business quicker depending on how many investments you want to do this year.

I've trained people at my jobs when I was a senior accountant to controller.I've used Yardi Enterprise (old desktop client software)Yardi Voyager 6s & 7sYardi Genesis2Reason why I say you won't be able to find a tutor is because no one is going to spend $15K a year to use as a training platform to mentor and tutor people.

When someone wants to send you a referral privately, they are probably sending you a friend that pays them a referral fee.

Spending the owner's money, not saying anything, and letting them discover it while reviewing the monthly statement is unprofessional.

You need to remember that, hopefully, this is a long-term play for you, so work with a trusted STR designer (I have great recommendations), and spend the money upfront so you can be the most successful in your area.

There are a lot of options out there.Some of the most useful items BiggerPockets members have identified are features that save time so they can spend time working on their next property.

GC in my area cost 10% of the total and I would say that is worth it for what they provide, but if you have the knowledge and willingness to be on the phone with subs (and spend a lot of time on site) you could save that by DIYing it.