When I was looking around for lending, anything outside of a private lender or portfolio lender had very similar rules to their loans.

Sounds like you have plenty of experience, you should be able to find a private money lender no problem.

I had praised them publicly here and other places and privately to a small number of people.

Try to find Comps that have the flood insurance requirement so your not overestimating the ARV of the subject.A great alternative to NFIP (FEMA) Flood Inusrance is the private market flood insurance.

If you had a list of about 700 people in your area with a lot of money how would you market to them

@Blair Colsey If you get to the point where you scale and start doing several projects a year, odds are your hard money lender/private lender will not run your credit to approve every loan once you are established with them.

Depends on how much cash you have ready and how much credit or private money you have access to. 

That can work but you'll likely need to go further from the GTA.HELOCs however are great not only as a source for down payment or renovation but you can also privately lend for 2nd mortgages off of your HELOC.Lend out borrowed funds at 4.5% & receive returns of minimum 11% right there you can make 6.5% return on money that isn't really yours in the first place.

Only one was through a private lender.

I learned so much by touring properties and helping investors find properties to invest in.