Recently I’ve been living next to an illegal and poorly run STR operation and I can now better empathize with folks who strongly oppose them.

I wouldn't be opposed to having a little skin in the game (closing costs, inspections, etc) I would be living there paying market rent and doing the improvements myself.

-Why a hard money loan as opposed to a bank loan? 

At this stage, the main thing we need is for me to get back into the workforce and get some money coming in, in order to achieve that dream.With that in mind, my immediate goal is to gain employment in the field of property management, as opposed to wasting my time working in another field that is not associated with real estate.

If I were to do seller financing as opposed to FHA would it have a different impact? 

Yes you do have to pay PMI when you do this but once you hit 20% equity you can get it removed if you buy with a Conventional loan as opposed to an FHA loan.

If so, you know how the neighborhoods break and that the appreciation trajectory can be diametrically opposed within a block.

You have more control of your time when working with sellers as opposed to buyers.

My oil bill is now for about 40 gallons per month or about $165 as opposed to $800 2X per month.

I never understood why people would have a flip, boost the value by tens of thousands of dollars, then sell it as opposed to keeping the equity and putting a tenant in there.