The best thing that someone can do to be a better customer for a hard money lender to trust them to lend to you, is first and foremost to be 100% truthful from the beginning about the whole situation and filling out application to the best of your ability. 

We've never mentioned upgrading the lawn to them (except offering to buy one bag of seed and some sand for them to try) and the crazy thing is that she was one of the NICEST people I've ever had during the application process (complete 180 since then).

@Flavio Zanetti The market for tenants is very strong and we usually have more applicants than we know what to do with.

Obviously if I received some strong applicants I could buy it and move forward.

I do not waste my time trying to make applicant work.  

Every applicant I have has something wrong with them.

Put a reminder in your favorite calendar application to remind you to start looking at rates 2 weeks before your current contract ends, which is around the time when you can switch without an early termination penalty - but check your REP docs to be sure.Best price I ever had was 1 cent per kwh, but that probably won't happen again for a while, if ever.Side note: Only once did an REP not honor it's EFL, and after they declined to adjust what they were charging me, I filed a complaint with the PUC of Texas. 

Anything priced under $2,000 will have a zillion applications immediately.

It obviously will depend on your entire application (credit score, D:I ratio, etc) but let's just say you're pretty green across the board.Also, do you recommend trying to find a local credit union (hard to find one that will do a HELOC on an investment prop based on my several attempts) or going to a public bank?

If you are going through a bank, they have a different department and different underwriting process where they are interested in debt coverage vs. the qualifications of the applicant.