It's my understanding that hard money lenders aren't necessarily the formal businesses you might find online, but simply any person/entity willing to provide a short term loan, collateralized by property, and willing to take (mostly) interest only payments and defer full / majority repayment of the principal upon the term end.

After ten years, the seller is paid and all the gain is reported.IRS Form 6252 is the form you complete on your tax return.  

The guy I'm buying from is completely remodeling 3 of the four units, and I may be able to talk him into kicking the last lady out, who will be gone before closing anyways, and remodeling all 4.

This may be a long post, but I thought it would be good to walk through everything step-by-step, and explain my thinking along the way.If you want to stick with me through it all, here we go:I was not going to be getting a conventional mortgage for my first property for a number of reasons.First, I am still annoyed at the hoops I had to jump through to get a mortgage for my primary residence.Second, my liquid cash was on the lower end.Third, the properties that I would need to start out with would not be financeable anyway.Fourth, my DTI is on the high side, due to the decision that we made to take out a HELOC to complete interior improvements on my primary house.So, I decided that my path was going to be to form a single member LLC, and take a loan from my 401(k) at work to finance the down payment.Since I do not view the 401(k) loan as a long-term solution, I am treating like hard money, and pay it off ASAP.So, my first deal would be a flip, or a rental that was such a good deal, that I could re-fi out and pull all my cash out.I decided to reach out to the commercial lending department of the local credit union, which I am a member.The person I talked to (who became my lender) is fantastic.I told him what types of properties I was looking for, and that I’d look to turn them into rentals, or to flip them.I will never forget his response, which reminded me why I love this credit union.He said:“Typically, the deals you are talking about are much smaller than the deals we like to do.However, we also realize that you can not get to that level unless someone helps you get there.So, if the numbers make sense, we will see if any of our products fit.”Awesome!

If you negotiate a good enough deal that pays you then complete the transaction with the investor to buy the house you have under contract.

I can completely understand the impression of getting scammed when the tenant is showing the property - because it happens.  

Most people will choose to use their own cash to purchase the home then refi once the rehab is complete if you are looking to buy and hold.

This lease is month-to-month (TAW) so I can simply terminate that lease for Nov 1st.  

I completely understand and empathize. 

I would definitely submit a complete offer package with dates, terms, numbers, copy of an earnest money check, proof of funds, or pre approval.