I’ve heard of folks borrowing from their personal network for a down payment, but is this actually used in practice?

If you can't qualify as a real estate professional, your ability to use PALs to offset non-passive income (like your W2 earnings) might be limited.

Notably, short-term rentals are categorized as non-residential properties.

Confirm the Family that is remaining can afford the payment.

You are correct - the terms can be great and with the exception of the monthly interest payments, you control the payback schedule.You can add a business or personal line of credit (LOC) as well if you can get one.

You're correct that most are primarily working with non-investor clients.  

Their fee is 9.9% of the total amount we use (for this property we only need $30K so the fee would be about $3K, with typically 0% 12 month term, payments at 1%).Is this typical?

Here are the details:Property: Purchased in Windsor Ontario for $350,000 in May 2023.Investment: Renovations/ repairs and other expenses totalling $60,000 with a down payment of $108,000 (from HELOC) and $5,000 in closing costs.Current mortgage left is 244k.Current Issues:•Foundation issues requiring attention.

I have a duplex I'm interested in buying but don't have the cash $$$ for a down payment.

For smaller multifamilies, you might be competing with non-investors.