Lending practices were drastically tightened after '08 which has subsequently lead to better underwriting and better debt securities.

Institutions, private equity firms and family offices will be your best best.

I have seen many posts regarding hard money lending for a new project. 

Most of the area immediately surrounding Yale's campus is either owned by Yale or institutional owners.I am not aware of a New Haven specific investor's group but there are a couple meetups on BP and the CTREIA has recently had a change in leadership and has been more worthwhile than before.Hope this helps!  

If it's a refinance, the property needs to be leased (at least in my world of portfolio lending). 

BP IME is not a great resource for legitimate information from commercial operators - for that, just look in the tax records and cold call the owners of the type of property that you want to buy and ask them questions, tell them you're just getting started - 2 out of 3 will be happy to talk to you and lend you a hand. 

The hard part is identifying the bottom.If you do pursue buying rentals I would try to do it through seller financing,  that way they are non recourse loans or if you go through traditional lending practices keep your loan to value amounts below 60%. 

I wouldn't get into any partnerships, joint ventures, lending or any such thing until you get a feel for your tolerance for risk and whether you want active or passive investing.

I've used hard money lenders for short term lending and paid them all back properly.

I have a single family I just closed on to house hack back in December and again I only have about 20k to put towards a flip.A local investing group has meetups and with an investment of a few grad they say they will plug you in with wholesalers, and contractors and lend an ear to compete the flip does that sound like Something any of you would do for a first flip.