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.

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

Decline the Zillow application option, that's where they get money out of you.

I've also put in my earnest money. 

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.

Hey Tara, Are you currently on a hard money loan?

This post says I can use a bond or surety which sets money aside to account for the lien amount and then get the lien off the title.

Don’t touch the money, get the QI step before you close.

You may be able to find a local bank that would hold the note if you bought it outright, but anything under $50k and most times under $75k is hard to borrow against...it's just too low for a bank to make any money without triggering usury or State/Federal fee limits like they mentioned.