I personally know these tenants, so I have no fear of them destroying the place!

Most good contractors fear getting stiffed the material costs which is why they require a deposit.

If you check those 3 boxes you need to get over your fears and see yourself as a homeowner.My recommended solutions1.

Don't let fear stop you from moving forward.

Though, maybe they'd be happy to simply sign something with their current rent as it would alleviate their fears of us increasing the rent?  

Making those decisions and overcoming those fears is the real struggle for me at this early stage. 

My fear is having spent all of our money on securing the hard money to funds to buy and rehab the property and then having to turn around and come up with more money (via downpayment or closing cost) to secure the conventional loan that would pay off the hard money.Hopefully that all makes sense, happy to clarify more - thanks again for the response and info!

I am not getting in to about tax laws today but interest rates have been used as a tool to calm down the inflation spawned from a hot economy.. thats not the case this time, we got inflation from a supply chain problem (lazy brats with everybody sitting in their duff economy) Now its just my opinion, problem I fear most, is the feds will misdiagnose the problem and hike interest rates than will bring stagflation.. and at that point all bets are off  

My fear is the investor might expect to much and I rather set the expectations so I can find the right deal that leaves everyone happy.

Be patient, know your numbers, don't operate out of fear, have fun!