I don't believe raising QOZ money for entitlements that would be resold 6 months later would pick up traction.

Network, find some money. 

You put that money into escrow and when you purchase the property and complete them, you get the appraiser to come back out to verify the fixes.

He must have spent gobs of time and money every year maintaining the books and the structure. 

As a commercial hard money lender and buyer of commercial property notes, almost all our borrowers are entities.  

I also updated our initial contact letter to explain that it's in their best interest for us to do the pre-qualification so inquiries don't waste time or money driving out to the property and/or completing an application when they won't qualify anyway.

As you know in many real estate deals, the money is made at the buy.Personally, I'm focused on off-market deals where we can create value.Curious—how did you frame your offer to get them to drop without hesitation?

You would be better off putting money into a fund that performs at 6% to 8% somewhere with appreciation. 

Too many rentals, too much deferred maintenance, no real budgets, not enough money in reserves.You can still get CapEx in condos....these are called "special assessments" .

Hard money loans don't seem to be in line with my strategy I like the DSCR route, but understand that would lock me in to 5+ unit deals.