As far a buy and hold goes, down payments are the stopping point.You can only buy (and hold) what you have a down payment for.Some people (when the market is right for it) will flip.Those who know the rules of this game, and are hammer swinger types may have an advantage in this area vs someone who has no sawdust in their blood.If you have no idea of the difference between a Radial Arm Saw and a Chop Saw, or what exactly to use to caulk a wet location, your communication with your sub-contractors might not be very clear all of the time, resulting in inferior (to what you wanted) work, or costly re-dos.In my opinion flipping is more like a job, where you can either live off the money, or use it to buy and hold income producing real estate for your portfolio.Just my 2 cents. 

And before you reply with "you did the crime, deal with the consequences"..... grow up and get real....I see a lot of people up in arms about these issues (especially about homeless issues) but all they want to do is rant and rave... they NEVER offer a reasonable alternative solution.....all they do is scream "get a job you bum".

Make sure it explicitly explains the process for termination if you are unhappy with their services, but especially if they violate the terms of your agreement.3.

Always happy to help a fellow brother in arms.

It then becomes costly to get it fixed.I had a client that was using VA and bookkeepers found through fiverr, upwork, and some other platform.Paying a ridiculous amount of money to them to mess up the books.I then had to charge an arm and a leg to review and fix.Moral of the story: get someone competent/experienced in the real estate world to handle the books.

Make sure it explicitly explains the process for termination if you are unhappy with their services, but especially if they violate the terms of your agreement.3.

Does it explicitly state the tenant is responsible for HVAC service and repairs? 

Should I then get a traditional loan or ARM to take the place of the Hard Money loan, or should I contact the HM lender and ask for a 12 month extension?

You can list a property you have under contract, you have to sign a listing agreement with the seller and explicitly state whatever it is sold for above the contracted price goes to you. 

Recently priced a 10/6 ARM at 5.25%, costing .5%.