I'm not actually sure) could end very badly for you, and it would be incredibly difficult to find people willing to provide the cash anyway.As far as the private money for the renovations, it really just depends.

Even a semi-competent realtor can walk a client through an old house and talk about "good bones".

For instance, when I started, it was difficult to identify if someone was motivated or just a tire kicker (not really interested in selling).  

I have clients in my field (Swimming Pool Repair/Maintenance) who are investors in different aspects of Real Estate.

On top of that, I will be buying these properties under an LLC, which is notoriously difficult in this area without a larger down payment.

And I am saying this from experience selling them to clients who 'had to have them'. 

How difficult can that make obtaining additional financing?

I have even flown to other states to meet with clients.. ( of course I had talked to them on the phone. but it was big enough timber deals that I wanted a face to face and whats 1k bucks in flight car and hotel if I was going to make a few hundred grand on the deal.. its simply the cost of doing business. as this is all I do .I never did not close the deal when I made this unique effort..

Cheapest money we can find so far is 8% would like to get that down.Our clients are exclusively in Shelby County, (Memphis) Tennessee.  

I think your NAR quote is probably right as we weren't developing from 2008 to 2011, but it probably applies more to select markets where there's been less building recently (strict building codes/difficult to develop/geographically constrained) ...