Hi Adam,If you could be more specific about what type of loan you are seeking that would help.There is a difference between buying a house as a rental with a long term bank loan and a rehab loan using private or hard money.

I am looking for a good list broker that can provide me with a list of people who would be potential private money lenders in Southern California.

Go after private or hard money loans where the majority of the approval is based on the property itself.

it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn to raise money from private lenders.

not really, the rules related to Private Placements are actually "EXEMPTIONS" from those rules.

You're likely either looking for a good retail listing agent (if your leads have equity and are interested in selling) or you're looking for a good short sale agent (if your leads don't have equity and want to sell short).If you're looking for a retail listing agent, drive the neighborhoods where your leads tend to be, and look for the agents who seem to be selling the most houses in that area, that price range and that style of house (you can see the agents by the signs they put in the yards).

Try contacting local, private banks who typically have more flexible underwriting guidelines.

I enjoyed your photos/style.

A friend approached me to help him with a property he inherited from his mom passing where a developer wanted to buy from him for commercial development.The developer after me catching everything in the contract to tie up the property with the seller asked me to work with him on the other parcels as he would rather be working with me than against me assembling the properties.Off I went after that for about 3 years in land development and then went into existing investment properties.I did things kamikaze style and figured them out on my own through the school of hard knocks.In your situation if you are focusing on apartments I would do the following.

The bank usually has their own internal controls for approval.Are we talking a credit union or a local, regional, or national bank, or a private source??