Because of that, I decided I wouldn't put any investors' money or any of my own in that region, and certainly not for a 7% ROI.

Nothing wrong with being a private money lender.

We still made plenty of money... but you don't know what you don't know... and in Flips, that can get very expensive, very fast.  

You still need to put at least 10-25% down depending on experience for a hard money loan.

I would not pay them $0.01 and if they did not provide me all my money bock, I would sue them for what they owe me. 

We have already raised half of the money for the community on bank notes with friends and family, we need another $150k before Aug 1st.

Seller often think "Where will I get the money to loan you?"

Repeat clients mean more compensation with lower expenses (leads cost money) AKA more profit.

I did have problems with the guy removing the limbs because he told me he would be there at 7:30 the next morning and I told him that would work but My Ford f150 truck was dead so I couldn't be there till 7:45 but once again he was calling me like I took his money and someone was trying to steal from him but my husband misheard what i told him to pay the guy and had to go back to the bank Atm but of course my husband actually went to his bank atm which was in the downtown Jackson area when he could have went to the one around the corner but he said the people were still getting the tree limbs when he came back and they received there $450.00 and my husband received the $15.00 in gas money he requested for doing this for me on his time and it was raining that day as well.

We tried offering seller financing, money toward buying down someones rate, etc.