Thorough vetting is absolutely essential in private lending to mitigate risks and protect your investment.Here are a few additional tips to enhance your due diligence process-Assess Their Exit Strategy: Whether it’s a flip, rental refi, or sale, make sure their exit strategy is realistic and aligns with market conditions.

Great investigating.

Are there any tips, tricks, or guides for turning on utilities after close of escrow and possession?

Use some for buy and hold (I personally would prefer apartments rather than buying a few single family homes) and some for lending/trust deed investing.In either category, you must know what you are doing, know how to vet the investment, how to vet the sponsor (if investing in a larger fund of some sort), the laws and regulations on the lending side, how to investigate which areas to invest in buy and hold and notes/trust deeds for that matter.So as you have already said several times, lots to think about . . . 

The Federal Trade Consumer’s Bureau of Consumer Protection stops unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices by collecting reports from consumers and conducting investigations, suing companies and people that break the law, developing rules to maintain a fair marketplace, and educating consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities.In all other industries consumers are able to rate the performance of service providers and potential investors have a right to have these insights.

Any tips to get the seller to come down on price or fix things to get the best value? 

I am looking for suggestions, if any available. I am trying to find ways to raise capital to scale my real estate business. First and foremost I have tried the typical solution of friends and family. I come from a poo...

Any tips on updating photos or descriptions effectively?

A couple of tips to get the most of your post: - First, upload a profile picture and consider taking 2 minutes to update your bio.

Gotta love these low lifes Suspected meth lab found in basement of home that caught fire, Cleveland investigators say (cleveland19.com)