Nascent business very nascent.

Best of luck!

I am working in a couple of 10,000 person cities and looking for very specific types of properties (3-10 or so unit properties).

Here's the best lesson I can give to those trying to figure out the paralysis issue:  the true entrepreneur (who gets things done) does not care if they lose money.

There is very little appreciation in Albany, GA.

It was $5.99/month, but it worked very well.

Our goal is to secure the best possible loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, ideally around 80%.

this is a toughie. hard money specifically is equity-driven, meaning they'll likely want 40%+ down to even entertain the deal. additionally, land without improvements is often very inexpensive (relative to land with improvements), usually pushing below a threshold which makes sense for a hard money lender. if you're not intending to build right away, then i think you'll have the best luck with private money instead of hard money. usually higher leverages than hard money, and more negotiable terms.if you are intending to build on it pretty right away, a ground-up construction loan could work, but those will typically require some ground-up construction experience (on title on other ground-up deals), or an extensive portfolio of heavy rehabs/ rentals/ strong liquidity. those will give you acquisition monies (to buy the land) and build monies (to build the improvements).

Since it would then be a family deal, this is one of those very few instances that makes sense.

No appraisal required and very fast funding, competitive interest rates (they get better with your experience as a rehabber and number of loans with the company.