I have Money saved, but I would like to avoid using it if I can, so I have looked into Hard money lenders as the quickest option, I would like help evaluating if it makes sense to use that route of financing. 

I verbalize to clients that I ultimately work for the transaction. 

My advice: find something that needs a little bit of work and save yourself some money doing the upgrades yourself - although it is fairly priced. 

I'm interested in flipping too, but I've always preferred the long term hold strategy to building equity, and ultimately retirement wealth.

You might want to check out the BP Ultimate Free Beginners Guide to get a solid foundation.

I agree its ultimately up to me and the investors what a fair deal is.  

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

To save time it doesn't need to be an actual phone call.

I saved up some money and bought something without having a clue.

I like to go brand new everything, I don't like  to go back and fourth to rental properties fixing and spending more money on repairs, but if its in a bad area with high vacancy rates save your money :)