Rather than spending all the money to furnish the unit for it not to be successful... and have to sell or put all the furniture in storage and create another expense. 

You are not going to save any money by supplying the materials .

My preference is to go straight through the title company, put that money into renovations, and send the agent a couple hundred dollar gift card to Amazon for their time. 

I get the concept of analysis paralysis - but maybe it is 'analysis-not-making-sense-icus"... to invent a new term.I think beginners need to realize that the real estate market is cyclic.  3-5 years ago both properties and money were cheap.  

What some people are suggesting above is "equity stripping" where you keep your direct equity small in case of lawsuits or other troubles.

We plan to utilize hard money but I am interested in opinions for other options.

I've also put in my earnest money. 

Chances are, the living arrangements and property use is not as it was supposed to be.If the money is good, set a lease with extra provisions for the dope house cleanup when the tenant leaves.You can't charge for the plants, but you can charge for uncommon use of the property.

I would chat with a conventional lender to verify, as I mainly just do DSCR/hard money. 

Partnered with a friend and raised $250K for down payment and raised the rest through hard money.