I feel like instant booking making sure they have good reviews would filter these out.

These are great questions to ask to help filter out Hard Money Lenders.  

As others have mentioned, 80% LTV tends to be the ceiling, and I would be somewhat surprised if you're able to achieve that leverage when the rubber meets the road.I've seen lenders pull back leverage a bit recently, and 80% LTV used to be a well-known ceiling.Irrespective of this, if you're looking for high leverage, then the most effective way to get that is likely speaking with a large number of lenders and finding one who can offer what you're looking for.A few good places to start are...1) BiggerPockets --> Network --> Hard Money Lenders --> Filter by state (IN)2) Local REIA events.

We like to use Zillow, they have filters that allow you to view properties that are listed FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and in addition to this, you can see how long they've been on the market, property condition photos, and the contact information of the owner.

In all seriousness, you need to play around with the filters in Zillow and Redfin. 

There are so many so be sure to filter by your location. 4) Review this comprehensive 64 page deck on the state of the 2023 housing market (in your resource page as a member of BiggerPockets!)

We can afford it on a monthly basis but it does makes our personal budget tight with little wiggle room to grow any capital that way.Option 2 - Invest all cash as a down payment so loan is only $250k/Open HELOC at $350k limit to use for investing (assuming 80% LTV) - Our primary home monthly mortgage payment will be very low and allow breathing room in our personal budget.

There are so many so be sure to filter by your location. 4) Review this comprehensive 64 page deck on the state of the 2023 housing market (in your resource page as a member of BiggerPockets!)

., breathe down their necks to perform on their loans? 

I go in, change the air filters, replace smoke alarm batteries occasionally, I check for leaks under every sink.