The trick to hard money is to make sure you are only using it for a very short amount of time, and have multiple options to get out from under the hard money loan.   

The trick has been finding a bank that understands this.

But getting in for the $ wanted, that's going to be the trick.

@Andrew Lee Check out the  Bigger Pockets Rental Property Calculator which can help you with your analysis and has tips and tricks on how to fill in some of the numbers.

Doing the calculations if you live in an area with tiered electrical charges is the hardest part but you should be able to come up with a spreadsheet to do the trick.

The biggest "secret and strategy" that I ever learned was this:If I wanted to be successful in this business, I had to be able and willing to do things that others either would not or could not do.Since then, I have also learned a few tricks and strategies that I do keep secret to myself, because they give me a competitive advantage.

Not the 24 hour trick that we used to employ.Compounding this problem is the relocation of most probate courts to the old county courthouses away from the suburbs (due to budgetary problems).So, for this (and other reasons), my vote is to work this outside of the probate court.

save time shopping around), QuickBooks updates, news, trips and tricks?

I go to a tax update seminar every year and so you'd think I'd have heard if the laws had changed or if this were some tip or trick that could be used.

In the meantime the trick is, and admittedly this is a constant challenge for me if I'm going to be honest, to be on the lookout for the first kind but don't get so jaded that you forget about the second kind or come across treating everybody guilty until proven innocent as the first kind.