And in the podcast and in other places I keep hearing people say they get hard money lenders or put up their own capital or some other form of financing to originally purchase and reno a house and then refi with a traditional lender. 

Here are some options I offered: I could just buy it outright with a traditional mortgage. 

Q: On financing: I've heard on podcasts local lenders are better than traditional banks given your WellsFargos, Chases, etc usual have high loan balance requirements to lend.

Won't my interest rates be much higher on loans like this as opposed to a traditional mortgage?

I can leverage the cash value from now till the time I retire.Here's the logic behind this: Life Insurance Cash Value can generate 2 to 3 times the retirement income of money in traditional retirement assets.

I do traditional lending, so I know all those paths that I can take there.

They have money and want to lend (traditional sources of interest are abysmal right now).

My RE goal for 2017 is to have a steady enough cash flow to live on and have enough knowledge on non-traditional financing so I can further my portfolio in 2018 and on.

I've never refinanced so please bear with me.I have 2 properties that I househack (I only live in one of them househacking, and room to room renting in the other) through traditional loans and have been househacking for several years.

1099 income is self employment, meaning your claimed income will be ignored by any traditional mortgage lender (no, issuing yourself paystubs or showing bank statements will not work), and we are forced to just go off of what your tax returns say.