Now I am skeptical about Hard  money lending and confused about what is the true process. 

there is a ton of HML in NJ  don't get scammed with up front fees... and or terms that are too good to be true..

True, it will come at a higher interest rate than cash in the bank, but to me its worth it because of the options it gives you. - Second @Zachary Barton is exactly right.

Contractors were living pretty large around here, as you might have heard.Seriously, the whole 'you can flip houses with no cash' is technically true, but only theoretically. 

Regarding homebuyers paying for the high-end condos, It's true, While I don't have any in the larger buildings because of the high HOA dues that come with those large projects, I have a high-end unit in an 80 unit building in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and one in Dupont Circle area of DC, both are rented at high rental rates and people keep paying, I target the Federal Government employees that are in DC for 2-5 years building their careers.The offers were submitted based off the original list price before I lowered the price, One was too low to even counter, $50k below list, The other one that was $35k below list I had my agent go back to but it was over a week later and they didn't respond back so they moved on.

This will give you a true picture of the properties potential income value.

Anyone happen to know if that is true for FAFSA?

@Steve B. that might be true of some areas, but definitely not true of Austin overall.

Would love to find an owner financing deal, but realize that may be too good to be true.

In my understanding that is true for anything less than 5 units.