Upon request of the tenant, the landlord shall provide the name of thefinancial institution, account number, amount of deposit, rate of interest andshall allow the tenant to examine his security deposit records.

I'd use 75% for analysis purposes but you may encounter HMLs saying 70% or less due to your being a new investor (and thus there being a little more risk for the lender).Smart hard money lenders will assume that the value at time of purchase is exactly your purchase price, unless you can show them clear evidence that you are in fact buying the property for less than its true current as-is market value.Typically that will not be an MLS deal since almost by definition a property bought from the MLS is bought at market price since the property has been placed on the open market, with an agent motivated to price it at market value, visible to all and subject to competitive bidding, etc.But if it's an off market deal and you can convince the HML that you are in fact buying it for less than its true market value at the day of closing - which would require your providing comps and possibly having them walk through to confirm that there is not more work needed than in your project plan (yes, you'll have to come up with one of those too - that's how the construction phases get set) - then yes, you could find a HML who would let you put less into the deal initially then an institutional lender would, since institutional lenders always assume the market value is the purchase price.If you think about it from the lender's point of view, where they always want to keep their loan at or below a certain LTV (e.g., 75%), then it helps you figure out your own #s, how you'll have to present it to them, etc.It does help if you have a specific property in mind though, as HMLs these days are used to getting a lot of solicitations from new investors and the last thing they want to do is spend a lot of time on the phone with someone, or meet someone for coffee, who is a brand new investor and will never actually end up doing a deal (i.e., creating a lending opportunity for them).

You are not required to participate in the section 8 program.I would suggest that if you have trouble finding qualified applicants you might consider it, but be sure to find out ahead of time what you are getting yourself into.

Is it a club where people are participating a lot (good), or is it mostly dead (bad).

@AJ Shepard @Greg Dickerson @John Blanton @Chris Levarek is there anything legally wrong with a jv arrangement where the capital investor puts up most of the equity and does not actively participate and the other partner invests a smaller equity investment and runs the entire deal?

Evaluating other markets, though, I would not personally look at CO and Nevada, but would rather want to participate in the healthy appreciation of my home state, or get some geographic "plus points" of milder winters (CO) and strong economies (NV).Be well, and have fun!

I would think that it would be beneficial to work with the same institution on the lending and Refi, if for nothing else than simplicity and prior relationship.

The asking price is $275k, 95% occupied, and has decent cash flow.The problem, lenders will not touch a deal under $500K w/multiple properties.My question is this, what are my options to get this (seller financing, another lending institution that will do this deal)?  

Lastly, I believe professionals benefit from an industry where barriers to entry are low and market participants are able to step in & out easily.  

In this structure, the Company level LLC would participate in the deal essentially as an LP but maintain majority voting rights, while the GP level LLC won't technically be investing any money in the deal, it will be wholly owned by the Company level LLC, and will be involved in a management capacity while collecting fees and promote.