It's my understanding that hard money lenders aren't necessarily the formal businesses you might find online, but simply any person/entity willing to provide a short term loan, collateralized by property, and willing to take (mostly) interest only payments and defer full / majority repayment of the principal upon the term end.

As we are getting closer to the new year, I wanted to know if a January 2017 payment made in December 2016, would the interest on that payment be applied towards 2016 taxes, or 2017 taxes?

As an investor, using OPM(other people's money -- a mortgage), the purchase price and mortgage payments will dominate the cash-on-cash and cap-rate calculations.Yes, we would all like a Class A property for $1.95, but somewhere in reality is the balance for what can I get as rents and not have the expenses drive me to the poor house.Highly recommend the Calculators here on BP to evaluate the possible ROI using realistic numbers for each property.

You are not trying to get equitable interest and claim to be buying for yourself or selling only to a "select group" of buyers.

Here are some recommendations for you:Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area: http://www.biggerpockets.com/meetSet up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsRead Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingCheck out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/If you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person which should appear below the comments box.

The interest rates are higher and with the small period of time, your payments will be higher.

I just had a property turn over and followed this procedure for the showings:I advertise the property and handle all calls, emails, texts on it and set up viewing appointments (I group them all within 30-45 minutes on one day)The current tenants show the property to prospective rentersWhen someone applies, they email or fax in the application and pay the application fee via PayPal (although I am now trying out Cozy for applications) and I process the applicationIf the application passes, I prepare and email over the lease for signatureWhen the lease is signed and sent back to me, I send over a payment request for the first month's rent (via Dwolla or Cozy)At the check-in, I drive to the property to check them in myself and collect the security deposit in secured funds (or use Cozy to collect it beforehand)I have been doing the above for a long time and it has worked pretty well.

  $125,000 for one year, interest only payments at 6% with 2% PMI.The problem is that we are doing this deal remotely, I am in NJ and he is in NV. 

Landlord does not report our on time payments to build our credit.

Spoke to tenant and was told Sept rent should be coming, there was loss of child support, and rent payments will be back on track for Oct 1st.