If you were able to increase the value of the property significantly after the rehab, then you could bring the deal to a community bank  to refinance and take the hard money lender out.You keep all the equity and don’t have to file a partnership return for your annual tax return, which can be costly.  

Not sure if that is still legal or even translates in today's world of everything online but seemed like a good screening tool to me at the time. 

I met him at an event in Oakland and was not impressed personally all he would say is he does big deals for big money.. and I know how hard it is to do business with those in his community it really surprises me how people followed and invested as much as they did.

I financed this property using down payment funds from 403B and a local commercial bank. 15% down from personal funds. 85% down from community commercial bank. 3yr balloon, 20yr amortization, 7% interest rate.

Quote from @Michael Smythe: @Tuan Tran don't fall for all the hype about S8 by so called online "gurus"!

Otherwise, I think it is a good area to buy, it should cash flow as an LTR on day one (unlike other places nearby) and it is a nice community. 

@Tom Dieringer After purchasing my first property in 2024, I acquired most of my short-term rental (STR) knowledge from The Short Term Shop, which included maintaining respectful communication with guests, keeping calendar availability up-to-date, and ensuring high-quality listings.When I initially began May of 2024, I opted to list my property exclusively on a single Online Travel Agency (OTA) - Vrbo.

However, aside from that, I couldn’t find much information about them, and the only online presence seems to be the wife’s LinkedIn profile (though I’ve never met her in person and am just going off her profile picture on Zillow).After submitting the application through Zillow, we attached our income (two months of pay stubs for each of us from our current jobs), work references, credit and criminal background, rental history, and the contact info for our current landlord (who just so happens to be my fiancé’s father).

I was seeing information online that suggested both routes...Thanks in advance for the help!

There are many resources for you to connect online and in person.