@Jordan Lester, you can also get a 'no doc' hard money loan where they don't look at your tax returns.  

I see you're from Dallas -- not sure if you're interested in returning to the area but I know it's excellent for RE investing right now, as backed up by BP podcast guest after podcast guest.

I can easily vent it to the outside now using rigid metal duct.

I recommend providing a preferred return to the funding partner.

Hard to get those returns in stocks or real estate.

They focus on your overall rate of return instead of a 2% rule. 

That also increases IRR and CoC returns but again, we'd rather be conservative so we don't show the boosted returns in our main marketing deck.

I like the idea of having some control over returns whenever possible.

That may require or a short sale or not depending on their equity which you may not determine easily without that initial discussion.

Unless you want to generate history for which unit is historically easier to rent, or has a better return.