There are a few that are nationwide.  

Negative rental history, eviction, or outstanding monies owed to a previous landlord are unacceptable.

Rents are a little low here in Mississippi when compared to the nationwide average but if you get things at the right price and just inch up on rents, returns are good. 

That means you’ll have to estimate your outstanding tax liability (if any).3.

@Horacio Gutierrez, you can find that there is still an outstanding promissory note/lien on the property, but you're not going to find the outstanding balance in the public record.

One of the biggest issues is most real estate investors will not qualify with their income for conventional loans after acquiring 3 or 4 properties using their tax returns for income verification, so you're stuck.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are conventional loans in a box that allow a maximum of 10 loans...but there are a few Nationwide lenders that offer alternative financing and fact is these investor rental loans are much better than hard money and don't require income documentation.

The ROI (10%) was outstanding.

For example, for a person in my shoes who is just starting out in REI who makes decent income with little outstanding debt - would you guys recommend pursuing a private or hard money lender?

Judy Plannas in Fort Worth is an outstanding Realtor with a background in Construction.

Lots of lenders out there are Nationwide as well.