If you want to work with investors, try searching for local brokerages that also provide property management solutions and reach out to them to see if they're taking on more agents.

Being a landlord and property manager albeit my company is strictly commercial (retail and office space currently) when a tenant has an issue we respond immediately with a solution and as well we value our properties and keep them in immaculate shape.

Not necessarily looking for a long term solution (not worth putting in a drain tile given the type of basement it is), just something that can get it dry enough for an extended period to paint the floor.

The solution that I thought of is to have a good friend of mine who is interested investing with me be the one who gets pre-approved for the hard money loan but I don't know if 1) will that work and 2) how I could structure/arrange that so that we can move forward with him as my financial partner?

He is honest, reliable and a hard worker.

To reiterate, the commercial space is not reliable and has proven to have quite a bit of turnover in the last couple of years.The bank terms are exact.  

My realtor sounds optimistic about working something out with the lender but I don't want to count my chickens.Anyone have experience with tricky short sale solutions like this?

Also, you will need reliable contractors as well.Good luck! 

Subject to was the solution.3.

Diversity is the (not so) secret to reliable income from investments.