The bank or whoever will lend you the money for repairs too.  

They are hands-off, institutional grade real estate investments, and they allow you the option to diversify.

My excuse was not having the initial capital saved up, and no knowledge of hard money, private lending, nor using equity in my homesteaded property. 

Shoot me and pm - I have two valuation excel spreadsheets and a few RE valuation tools we use in lending ((for cap rates))....all that is free.Start tagging new transactions in keywords.....or just Tacoma...and  you will get a bird's eye on a 1000 deals a month right on this site and see the responses and the wisdom as they each newby runs into issues and opportunities. 

I know you there are banks that will lend uner 50k but a lot will not.

Competition should make much more reasonable terms available at other institutions.

Yeah I think @Conor Hesch has some great lending ideas for multi family units so I would definitely connect with him on that if that is the route you'd like to go while you are here in MN.

Currently most interested in hard money lending and non-performing notes.  

There are a few things to consider when looking to cash out refi:- There is normally a cooling off period of 6-12months before you can refi- You need a new appraisal (make sure to get this ordered from the institution that you will be refinancing with.

I’m in contact with a company called Priority lending.