JUST DON'T BS ANYONE (EVEN IF A AGENT WASN'T INVOLVED)IVE NOTICE A LOT OF WHOLESALERS WHO FAIL AND/OR HAVE DEALS FALL THROUGH DON'T DISCLOSE EVERYTHING UP FRONT WHICH LEADS TO A SERIES OF "SURPRISES" FOR BOTH THEIR BUYER AND THE SELLER.. 

I even have some friends and family that want to invest with me.

Once I have my license, I know I'll be able to contribute even more.

I don't even know how to search for hard money lenders.

And even if the rate is prime plus a percent or two, it's still superior to private or hard money.

Insurance and interest make it difficult for the traditional lenders to loan to us even though we can afford the payment, but to them since we deduct a lot of things on our taxes, we don't look to be cash flowing.

Being successful as an absentee owner of a small or even mid size business is close to impossible.  

For more adventurous ones - we have bought houses off of Craigslist, from foreclosure sales, from wholesalers , and even found a seller we were buying her house from had another one she was willing to sell us at the closing table!  

Also, I would also not cross-collateralize the houses if a lender would even do a portfolio loan.On your second question about multifamily, I would not jump to multifamily until you have experienced the common management problems with single-family as the expenses scale with the size of the property as well as the cost of mistakes.I would consider getting Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) on each property.

So the banks who are in second position are cognizant to this and are getting totally screwed when this happens.2. and even more important is the homeowner who lost the home.. if they have no junior liens they are due the overage..