I'm just a bit biased towards traditional buy and hold apts. 

Nicer counter-tops, cabinets, lights, fixtures, etc. . . 

I'm curious how others get past this hurdle considering many RE investors don't have traditional W2 jobs.

This shows the value of having title insurance, but as I also have posted in the past, unless you get a policy for the value of your purchase price plus the value of the improvements you plan on making, you'll be self insured for the latter if the fraud comes to light after you've started the rehab.Fraudsters target property owners in historic Black neighborhoods in South Florida (local10.com)

Just to be clear, the play here is to purchase a fixer upper for say $100k cash, put $20k into it, have it appraise for $150k, and then take out a traditional 80/20% loan. 

Too light and the dirt will show.

The best way to handle a hard money loan if you do not qualify for a traditional loan is to refinance out of the loan after the prepayment or sooner if you do not care about absorbing the pre-pay into the refinance loan.

The state wants consumers to have protection against unethical operators who would swindle them out of their equity.By the way, unlicensed real estate brokering / wholesaling lights a couple of different fuses you should be aware of.  

An example would be borrowing $200,000 at 12% interest then using the money to purchase a $120,000 home, spending $80,000 on renovations, and selling the house for $260,000 and making a $60,000 profit.You could also use a hard-money lender and pay the higher rate just because you can't qualify with a traditional lender.

I plan to purchase this property with 20% down traditional mortgage. 2.