As always @annbellamy hits nail on head...If a hard money allows you to move forward on a profitable investment after paying the lender, you should strongly consider it, understanding there is risk in the event of nonperformance.

learn all you can and when you see the right deal jump in head first!!

I bought a 3br/3 bath house 2200sq ft in Altamonte Springs FL this Nov. purchased for 105k using hard money, put about 25k into it and got it under contract in Jan for 173k- all was well, passed inspection with no notable concerns, headed toward a late Feb closing.

If not, head over there and read, read, read!

Again, I'm not an agent, so I don't know for sure, but that's what makes sense in my head.

Transfer tax in Philly is 3% and PA 1%, so this is a big impact of even considering this.Any help that anyone can provide is much appreciated.As Bill Gulley (thanks for the @mention heads up) already pointed out, that transfer will be considered a taxable event for real estate transfer tax purposes by the PA Dept of Revenue.

While I don't do the calculations, per se, the time/money tradeoff is always in the back of my head...Remember, there are two way to increase your hourly earn:1.

Replacing toilets with 1.6 gal (not the cheapest ones, you can get good ones for about $180 that also save you money and still flush properly) low flow shower heads, etc.

I feel like I could get a head start taking the no-school option and since most people quit their jobs to do real estate investing full time eventually what's the point?

Why is it everytime I see a thread asking about if someone should go to a bootcamp, hire a mentor or follow a guru, the first thing that pops in my head is Homer Simpson yelling "DOH!!"