I don't know if I will be around next year given I'm a Round 4 cancer survivor but believe you keep living, and in REI, make choices that fit your goals and make sense to you.Take care and best of luck,Erich

If you search the site for "private lender vs hard money" you'll come up with a number of threads that discuss the difference, here's one https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/72685-private-lender-vs-hard-money-lenderFrom a borrower perspective it's all about the cost of money (points, rates, terms) and the risk level (will they foreclose on you, will it ruin your friendship).  

Given I have been laid off twice in the past 4 years, I'm looking to clean up some debt so I'm not quite so close to the edge of financial ruin. 

I so wanted to go but health issues [stupid cancer!  

Would a bad rental ruin my family's assets?  

A great program can get ruined by leadership and really bad programs can actually benefit the owners with great leadership. 

The litigation is moving forward and even your own lawyer wants you to stop the trolling posts because you are ruining yourself.     

his only clean way out is a short sale, which ruins his credit.

My three scenarios for CRE during the COVID outbreak on CRETech.com https://www.cretech.com/directory/company/microshare/news/a-rosie-scenario-that-could-ruin-us-all

The tenants ruin the floors because of the pest nails and the floors are so badly scratched you get a bid to redo the floors  (bid is $2000) but upon move out, the tenants says, "yeah sure, my pet did the damage but the pet deposit is only $250 so you can't hold back more of my deposit for the floors".Best to avoid a sticky situation and just tell someone who has a pet the deposit will be increased.