My partner and I used hard money to buy property and have about 180k in house so far.

Again I'm just exploring my options as this is my hard earned money that I'm spending and I'm not an iron fist person but like to be "fair" and "punctual" with any business.

AVOID syndicators (who will happily take your money).

Hard money is something too scary for me to even consider. 

Cities will either not be able to comply or select sites that are currently zoned and used for purposes other than housing.This can lead to more complications with lawsuits and other administrative challenges that in addition to absorbing time and money prevent additional housing units from being built.

Why not get FREE MONEY!

Two-story houses bring in more money from rent and make saving on costs easier, but buildings with four homes cost less to start and are simpler to manage.

And consider that if they had put the money in a good MM, they would be getting 5+% right now

You may have to balance spending money on things today that you may not really need until later - but, they may cost a LOT more to change later.

I would use that as a potential guidemap as to where you may need to spend some money.