In Southern California a 7% loan isn't uncommon, but other places the lowest you could get is 15%.As for being a private lender, you could work off of JVs or partnership agreements or that kind of thing, but the cost to do a real hard money loan on your own where there is a lien recorded and get a lawyer to work up all the documents and everything would be cost prohibitive for a few loans.... that's what I meant

For legal advice contact a local landlord-tenant lawyer near you.

I would suggest contacting a lawyer in your area

Does anyone know of a good lawyer in Raleigh that can help me take care of this?

One of the biggest factors is its diversity in economics and population growth.One of my biggest fears is that Trump might screw that up by putting fear into the immigrants that make our economy better.  

@Jay Hinrichs , that's what immigration reform was to have been about: Reform the immigration system, so that people have a way to apply for legal work permits.

I bet this was just a mistake on the sellers end, contact your lawyer and take the necessary steps to get your money back.

I'm a lawyer and real estate consultant in Italy and I'm starting to do remote wholesaling, BMV and lease option, mainly in FL and UK.My brother also do that with me.I'm open  to collaborations and always looking for sharing knowledge and opportunities.Thanks all and keep in touch.Davide Govoni

Make no mistake; a lawyer would be setting all of this up for us - before we took a single dime - but I'd like to know more about the best way to get this all setup and how it all works before hitting one up. 

@Brad Fausett Well, I think regular property inspections and getting a lawyer on the case as soon as issues emerged might have helped the situation.