I hope to achieve the same result one day myself. 

Have they delivered on their promises, or have the results been underwhelming?

Local lenders might have specific insights into the market, but it really depends on the type of loan and property you’re pursuing.As for your credit, applying to multiple lenders can result in hard inquiries, which could temporarily impact your score.

And keep in mind that the rate on the 2nd lien will likely be 10-12% so depending on the cash flow it might not actually yield that much cash to you at closingMore importantly, it's just more debt so ultimately it sounds like you need an income-producing event to actually improve your situation and avoid some of the consequences that you mentioned

For instance, things like death, divorce, job loss, natural disasters, heath issues, etc may cause you to change your plans unexpectedly and may change what you do with your home as a result.

Lenders will finance up to 80% of the appraised value, so if the value does come in lower, that will result in a lower loan amount. 

You prob will start off in arbitration and if that does not yield a good result, go to court.

However, if the property is a long-term hold, the lower interest rate with a prepayment penalty can often result in better overall returns.Another consideration investors should evaluate is how prepayment penalties are structured - whether it's a declining penalty over time or a flat fee - because this can significantly impact their profitability when selling earlier than expected.

Those what-ifs only matter when they happen, anxious thoughts really aren't something I put an extreme amount of thought towards since the majority of the time they slow me down and result in an analysis paralysis type of scenario. 

The first move is the strongest precedent of the end-result.