Usually you can avoid personal guarantees by having your IRAs membership interest at 19% or less in that LLC.

AND it works other wise they would not keep doing it.so A true private lender is someone you personally know or have met who has money in their IRA or other cash but lending is not their business they just make a few loans a year to those close to them. 

Buy houses that make money here and they’ll pay for your vacations :)

Lent out money to a very close friend of mine and someone I trusted implicitly.

I wholeheartedly agree that strong mentors are integral to a person's growth.

Person to person deals will always be fine because those are arms length if neither person has a license.

I’m interested in doing long term rentals using the BRRRR strategy, but curious to learn what others are doing.As mentioned you can do a BRRR but do not expect to get all your money out of the deal and have it cashflowing.

We hear a lot about hard money lending, utilizing the BRRR method for holding properties, etc.

Is it necessary to pay that much money?

If you do not own a primary home its easier because you can claim any 2-4 unit as primary and only have to put down 3.5% for FHA, 5% for Fannie Mae or No money down 100% of you are a Military Veteran.Live in the home for 12 months refinance pull some cash out and move on to the next property to buy.