@Mark Ainley might be able to steer you in the right direction

Of course this queers the FHA loan but steers you clear of trouble on the  1031 front.

If you steer clear of those activities you're going to be fine for the most part - but you should still check out the laws in your state.

I don't want to steer you away necessarily from house-hacking, just know that if you ever do hard money down the line (which is the best to scale your business  IMO) we won't consider a house hack as management or investor experience! 

Steer Clear - I got a great property, but man has this not gone smoothly.

One of the most common things I see landlords doing is steering applicants.

I have about $80k of my own finances to use for this venture, and would like to go with a hard money loan, although I'm open to traditional bank loans, but my goal is to refinance the property later this year, and use the cash to invest into further properties.Any advice on the local market and helping steer me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

The "you can't steer a parked car" is helpful here too.

If your budget is between $350k-$500k I would suggest steering away from Charlotte as this price point is much more competitive and head to surrounding cities such as Kannapolis, Kings Mountain, Salisbury, Winston Salem, Denver, and many more.

They are able to loan you the money directly from their account on terms you negotiate and it will steer you clear of the tax penalties that you are currently facing (granted only if you do not pay back what you borrowed in 2 months).