Is it possible to get short term private money/hard money financing to pay the owner of the house in cash and then secure the FHA loan within a month to pay off the hard money/private lender?

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There has yet to be a resource that does not recommend BP so, needless to say, I am very excited to learn from posts, conversations, etc. 

Looking for my first deal and came across a large house conversion that has 7 units in it.  

As mentioned in Frank's article linked above, you're looking at a significant expense if you have to build private utilities.

Conversation starter?

Of course, I could also get private/hard money, but that sort of freaks me out - what if the property doesn’t hit the target ARV and I can’t pay off the lender / 70% isn’t enough?

My only theory is he wants our mortgage to look clean until he has the chance to sell it to a big bank (it's a small private lender), and he's only looking out for the company's interests. 

I dont know the price yet, but I want to get private money set up before then.

Private Lenders, Hard Money lenders, or doing a "cash rich" Partner that will make you be able to do your entire project.