Mike hasn't been back yet, I'd bet he understands the points I was making above.Steve, predatory practices are not necessarily avoid by showing you tried to work out an existing loan, the attempt may not even apply to other factors.

@Chris Bingham Your best bet is Levelquik and you can find it at a big box store.

Often times people use a price per square ft, but oddly enough everyone uses a different approach, including hard costs vs soft costs.

Hope you are listening to the podcast - Josh and Brandon are fantastic - as well the amazing guests.I live in the Bay area also but invest almost entirely out of state in Texas and Midwest.I think it's a much safer bet to do real estate outside of California due to positive cash flow and avoid the crazy roller coaster ride of California real estate market.

What can I do to improve my odds when I meet with hard money lenders?

As much currency as has been printed, their bet is that the rates won't go up much.  

Your last paragraph was very important as I learn about buy and holds…don't bet on appreciation.  

You are making a bet, perhaps an educated guess, but just the same, a wager that average home prices in a given community will increase.People who buy with short term gains in mind are speculators; they often just don't know it.

You may see the odd TK company but I don't see many advertising there.I sold one of my OREO's to a BP member that came from the Marketplace.. and had a few others look at one I had in Kokomo.. but sold that one through a local broker in Kokomo for more money than anyone on BP would offer..

I think your best bet would be to find a professional property management company to handle it.