Private lenders are the true way to go. 

Coming up on my 60 birthday, so I would like to explore more passive investment options including (1) Hard Money Lending, (2) Private Money Lending, (3) Buying and Selling Notes, (4) Syndication or even, (5) Tax Lien Certificates. 

Also depending on the college town you could rent the other units as an AirBnB and make more money that renting to college students, and the unit(s) won't get tour up so you will save money on the make ready cost if you rent to college students. 

According to the post it's a private Lender

Just private message me.

Time is of the essence here most especially when you are competing with private buyers on a good neighborhood.

If you can find private lenders who have some money and will lend it for around 7-10% interest with no points, that makes sense to use up front (and then later refinance with a bank).

I am wondering what experienced investors/builders might think about the following investment scenarios (sort of passive income): Buy the right piece of land and build a five/six row of townhouses and rent them out (@1,500 sf/unit, maybe rent them @$1/sf or a bit more) Buy a beachfront property overseas and build a small resort (six luxury villas/bungalows) each with private plunge pool and stunning views (charge $350/$400/night)-option 1 is less risky than option 2 but rewards are considerably lower for option 1.

If you really really need it, its a lot better to set up your own VPN using a virtual private server (such as via Amazon AWS) and freeware VPN client like OpenVPN. 

As for the cost of dues in an HOA, those are typically determined by the age of the property, the level of maintenance required and whether the HOA is putting away enough in reserves as they are required to do so for capital expenditures like new roofs, road work on private roads, maintaining driveways, etc..