While this wouldn't be my number one choice of locations, all I care about is making money. 

Save your money on courses.

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. - Would pivoting to hard money lending make more sense for my current situation?

Most importantly is to have built a team to support you and your real estate journey.  

NC DENR and VA DEQ have great intentions, and I support their efforts in general, but I can't afford $150,000 for all the environmental surveys and sediment studies for the small acre land disturbance area that I build.

Whether it is loud music at night, or "Hey, our car broke down and we won't have all the money this month to pay the rent" - how you handle those situations.  

A link to FilePlace is at the bottom of every page, so it is easy to find.If you have technical issues, send an email to support@biggerpockets.com and someone will help you.

We ended up going the HELOC route on that property for a few reasons. 1) the interest at the time was only 5%, which although seemed high, didn't matter too much with our potential property showing a 18% ROI 2) we leveraged a second home loan with 10% down for that new property, so our HELOC withdrawal was relatively small compared to what would be needed for a traditional loan on a rental. 3) I dont think I will see the rates in the 2% again in my lifetime, so figured I should hold on to that "free money" instead of selling it. 

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