Aside from what everyone else has mentioned, I think for someone who's just starting out but has time and knows the market well, doing the small deals would be a great way to quickly learn and grow your confidence.

Thank you for sharing your processing here and why you felt confident scaling in Denver! 

The biggest thing is to educate yourself to a level where you feel confident in your market research, and analysis of the property.

There's just too much going on there, you have lost confidence in them, sometimes a relationship is beyond repair. 

It as took up to 6 months or longer for my clients to put themselves in a position and confident enough to pull the trigger.  

If you're confident that you can complete the rehab within your predetermined time period to keep holding costs from going over budget, hard money can work for you just as well.Traditional financing could be a road block when it comes to targeting seriously distressed properties, some lenders wont loan on a property that is not in "move in ready" conditions.

If your property is small enough that you feel confident in self-managing and hire out specific local task, then put thoughts into a system that allows. 

. #1 in mortgage by volume is known for having ridiculously high hidden fees, #2 is another household name, famous for their "every customer should have 8 accounts" scandal, both are widely despised by Realtors (you know, the people who are telling their seller client which offer to accept and which to throw in the trash).If the person you are working with comes well referred and you have confidence in them, that goes a long way.

My goal is to give you some confidence to get out there and invest!

I ran numbers on properties and comps every day for months and feel confident about this decision, especially because I am going to learn so much, so fast.