The opportunity for investors to purchase a desirable property quickly is a major reason to seek private lending.

You will quickly learn who knows what they are doing and who is a simply a document marketing firm. 

Lastly I'd recommend you check out The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods for some more information on the Cleveland market.

These are the only 2 I've read cover to cover:Long-Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene (Loved It)ABC's of Real Estate investing by Ken McElroy (Interesting read right after the above because he has a different view)And I'm in the middle of a few others:The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon TurnerThe Complete Guide to Real Estate Finance for Investment Properties by Steve BergesMulti-Family Millions by David LindahlThe Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller

Hi all, just wanted to start out with a quick thank you to all who participate in the forums, it's been an invaluable resource to me as I start my journey into property investing.

By way of quick background, my name is Will Kaufmann and I am new to BP and relatively new to REI.

Please click on the links, give them a read, and share your thoughts in the comments.First is a post that I feel will help not get overwhelmed with the amount of info that is here on BP:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52761-the-simple-guide-to-getting-started-on-bp The second is a post that will help get you focused with your real estate investing goals:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52743-im-new-to-bp-any-advice-would-be-appriciatedThe last one is a post that will help you choose an “investor friendly” real estate agent.

Refi (Yes Dave R is spinning in his grave or I'm sending him there more quickly)  Refi and consolidate debt on one or two properties and then apply all cash from every source you got including banks you can rob and lunch money you can steal from your children to that one loan.Paying of debt is a very good goal. 

This would quickly return most of my cash to me, which I need in order to complete a fairly extensive renovation prior to moving in.The problem I'm running into with my current lender is the timing. 

I'm wondering what kind of partnership agreement could work in the scenario where I find the deal and finance both the purchase and renovation and he manages the renovation.I think he may be more interested in a quick cash out and I'd like to buy and hold.