My friend convinced me to use him as a QI as he's done it before over the years and it would save me money.

If you demolished inside and they see it you cannot get a standard HELOC you will need to go hard money as most lenders are going to tell you that any worker who stepped on the site can lien the property and HELOC's do not use a new full title report, they rely on the title report of the last sale (again like I started with if people DIY record after closing it's a problem). 

No one will cover position 2, so I'll use Gap money to fill in the Gap. 

You don’t mention where your purchase money is coming from.

Sometimes, hard money for rehabs/flips may cost a little more buy may be less risky overall.

More importantly, with the rate and lending environments of the past two years, having mortgage insight, access and resources has supported or improved the invest-ability for the majority of my real estate clients.

You can buy deals at at 15% down (if it's turnkey) or lower if you're using hard money (for a BRRRR-type scenario).

Was able to BRRR with very little money left in the deal after refinance, Found renters and now have a cash flowing rental with a decent chunk of equity available.

However, these are the types of deals I’ve done many times which accelerated my climb up the net work scale, culminating in my being able to sit back and live off the interest from my hard money lending/ discounted note purchases.

It's a great way to increase your net worth and these loans can also be used to pull cash out of a property as it appreciates allowing you to reinvest money into new deals.Happy to connect to discuss further.