It's fed an overheated investment environment and left a lot of people dangerously overstretched, from first home-buyers to empty-nesters trying to grab a hold of the last vestiges of the upward momentum. 

Great that you're willing to put in the effort, so now find means to gather the $$$.There are techniques some like but only work in special cases and environments, but which usually lead to drinking the cool aid. 

Again, "private lender" comes out of SEC and financial regulations, they are defined to be excluded from SEC and financial regulations.

A kind of regulated payment system to leave for their loved ones. 

Life is made up of rules and regulations.  

Typically, you can look into similar properties in your area to find comparable cap rate in current market environment.  

Spoke with my local state banking regulator and they are researching whether this qualifies as a bank, requiring regulation.

We are not part of an association and the city is modifying their accessory apartment regulations so I believe I will be able to get it permitted if I wanted to. 

PMI is highly regulated.... the main thing these folks do is1.

You can use the retirement funds in the tax sheltered environments to purchase and hold real estate.