Is anyone aware of any reputable lenders doing flip and hold lending with reasonable terms?

Separate from the lack of necessary information, I'm not aware of any market in this country that can support the costs of ground up construction, particularly in the scale you are envisioning  where 2 bedroom units are renting for $1400 without significant subsidies.

At least with the S&P the dead companies fall off but overall RE keeps the underperforming in the mix.If one is high income then just throwing cash at the stock market over the long haul a nice way to go.

Anything less is truly not cash-flow.You want to not buy based off just intrinsic or cash-flow centric but the qualities of the property and the area.

I pay off principle of the mortgage around 13-14K a year and expect it to be an amazing long-term, cash flowing rental.

Ideally, one unit I can rent out long term and one unit for short term (3-6 months seasonally) that I might use every once in a while / on the off season.

Mostly I want to know other downsides to commission based off sqft rather than %.

My primary residence is paid off which is why I want to get a HELOC. 

I tell our customers all of the time, when you're steadily pursuing highly distressed leads with this criteria it's not a question of if, but how often you will contact the heir to a property who either didn't realized they owned, or they though the property had already been auctioned off by the bank or county.  

Hey all - first off, thanks to everyone for all of the valuable information and tips!