It's my understanding that hard money lenders aren't necessarily the formal businesses you might find online, but simply any person/entity willing to provide a short term loan, collateralized by property, and willing to take (mostly) interest only payments and defer full / majority repayment of the principal upon the term end.

As a small startup trying to educate myself on all things legal and RE, cash flow, utilizing online resources ect, BP has been priceless! 

I am looking for an online marketing strategy or a professional who can help us manage our online presence. 

I'd also get a text asking me to choose something, one which would save money.  

Awesome observation @JD Martin, but it will take me years to save up enough money to buy a house (even at 20% down) and then save up enough to fix it up.  

If you want to save the floor, sand to bare wood and have a decent floor guy blend a darker stain into the areas that can't be saved - *not* over the entire floor, which will just make those areas even darker.

I have a great W2 job now, but not enough in savings to plunk down on a property right now.

That being said I've done research and came across many different online and in person courses that are offered and was wondering what agency you went through and if you would recommend the same or a different agency?

I am biased since I work for a payment service that reports payments, however your landlord would be better offer looking into a payment service so they can collect rent online and have the reporting option for you.  

Like others said 70% rule is just a guideline which help you weed out unrealistic deals quickly, if you look at so many deals per day this help you save time on deal analysis and let you do other stuffs.