The conversation was about anchor properties, we mainly focused on reasons we chose those properties and what made us choose them.

Attend open houses and see what is on the market that a prospect would choose other than your place. 

Hard money lenders have earned a bad reputation in the area of lending for no good reason.

If they still choose to have the application processed and they are declined I always let them know why.

The value you bring as a serious, focused, and engaged person goes a LONG way to establishing your reputation.

With that broad parameters they set, I am planning to put a cap on finishes as part of the proposal, say for tiles it will not exceed $2.00/sq ft on the finish material (grouts, mortar and etc not included as finish material and represent tile only), or give out colors on the countertop (ie gallo lines), so they would not choose anything expensive, basically I will be setting cap spending on top materials.

If the goal is risk mitigation, and your exposure isn't huge (maybe you have a property or two and are just starting out in life), some investors will go the insurance route and choose a large umbrella policy over forming one or more LLCs.

We have two options, parlay this into another local REI meeting which we have three to choose from.

Will you trust someone out of state to make repairs and do a reputable job?

Does any one know of reputable lenders who can help me at a decent interest rate.