Dan Hi Dan, I think of it this way.Hard Money Lenders are people in the business who respond quickly, are set up to do real estate transactions and charge more money for the convenience and speed.

borrowed 97k  put 40k in our pockets, all of our initial investment plus about 23k.Last one.. 

Typical returns are 9-12% plus points if you charge them.

The landlord is crazy awesome and really isn't interested in charging top dollar for this apartment, even though 3 bedroom rentals are going for $2,200 a month easy. 

You got all that from her initial post?

Unless you've done any upfront repairs on the property then you'd factor that in to your total initial investment

@Mark S. what did they say in their initial docs?

YOur initial plan of saving money for the down payment sounds great. 

I heard once from someone that you should have around 20% of customers/people complaining about your price which allows you to get close to the maximum amount you can charge and still have people buying or renting.

What do you charge?