What is your current BUY formula for properties in this market?

Sounds like this is a private money lender or a hard money lender.If you are getting funds from another source and relying on that to close, you should not put in the purchase agreement that you are buying with cash.

I am continuing to buy residential properties.

I’d start with a smaller deal - buy a 6 to 12 unit say - raise money from your social and professional sphere - people who know you - who you have a beer with etc.

It's no different than investors buying and negotiating low prices on distressed opportunities.

(or if they're primary buyers, they don't care about yield, since they're going to live there.)i just went to visit two very distressed properties yesterday that i would buy.... if they were priced 50% lower.  

Imagine making millions of dollars over the course of your career and then having to pay 30-50% every year to uncle sam instead of compounding that cash over time.This is exactly what real estate professionals have learned to mitigate.To reduce their taxable income, they just buy a building every year, do a cost seg, and use depreciation to reduce their tax liability dramatically.Their personal wealth snowball grows much larger and much faster than their W2 counterparts who give most of their money back to the government each year.Following this strategy as a real estate professional is one of best ways to end up with a much larger net worth at the end of your career.

I stick with boring buy and hold, but in another state where the numbers do work.

TurnKey, Buy-and-holds, flips, or maybe long-term rentals?

Your investment property - This you could do a 1031 exchange on and buy another property you intend to use for investment.