Consider thinking about CAP rates as 'measure of risk' and relate it to your risk tolerance.

Quote from @Michael Challenger: I have no qualms with hard money lending, but I need to learn more about the process and structure to these for typical deals so that I am more comfortable and in a position to reduce my personal risk and risk to investors as much as possible.

In the meantime I would put the money in a low risk account gaining 4-5% which for $250k would be around $1k/month.Hey Chris - what is driving the sentiment not to buy anything right now?

I don’t go above our dti because I don’t want the risk.

Or not topping off reservoirs in advance of a known annual heightened fire risk season. 

Now I'm really torn, but think it just has to kill it for the issues of risk.

It doesn't really feel like enough of a reason to expose ourselves to the risk of a costly potential litigation.

As the risk goes up the cost of money goes up.  

Hey @Josh H. it's higher risk and def also higher reward.

You are definitely taking all the risk when buying from these sellers, especially if you only rely on the inflated ARV's etc that they provide.