Hard money financing 10% down How did you add value to the deal?

With only putting 13K down and netting over $650/month I made my money back in about 20 months - I still own the property and it rents for $1,250 currently.

This typically costs money, maybe $.02 -.10 per record.

hard money is a great tool for first time ground up construction 

Because you have more money than others  to bid and freeze now - you won, but rest of funds you can claim back later.

It saved me a lot of money!

I spend $500 to get an extra $4,200 of rent over the course of a 12-month lease, leaving me with a 740% annualized ROI. 

What @JDmartin said.......You'll lose money unless you hire a good GC.

I am NOT interested in owning any more real estate (retired here man) so I had planned on just paying my 15% long term Capital Gains tax rate and moving on to my "safe money" retirement program of MYGA's / CD's and High yield Savings account / Bonds / some Stocks.

I looked at their fees and thought OK I would pay more for a hard money loan anyway and could use the help to get funding. here I am with a bunch of crappy consumer credit cards flying out to a house I don't even live at.