Purchase price: $674,000 Cash invested: $134,000 Long term rental purchased in area that is under development and predicted to rise in value over the next 5 years - 2br 2bth

Has anyone had any success with buying motivated seller leads or buying into a website that produces them for you?

Prepayment penalties- usually 1-5 year terms.

Quote from @Matthew (Mateo) McDaniel: A hard money lender is typically used for short-term loans.

Save up for your first deal, complete it successfully, and present that experience to an investor.

But I did'nt care about how long it would take bc I was living the house.

In terms of your financing question, the majority of loans we do are in that $1m to $5m range, so that's not an issue at all (fake numbers wasting everyone's time would of course be an issue, but let's stipulate that it's solved).

The ultimate goal would be to rent it out for short term stays or possibly as an event venue (in addition to being on farmland, it's surrounded by pine forest and waterfront).

Money in hand sounds great, but my portfolio strategy (even though it’s currently small) is long term buy and hold.

There's nothing preventing the former owner from qualifying as the prospective owner-occupant as long as they meet the strict guidelines for being a prospective owner-occupant as set forth in Civil Code 2924m(a)(1).