Also consider the quality of your furnishings: Provide nice towels and linens, and avoid the crinkly plastic mattress protectors (my personal pet peeve as a guest!).

Here, your lender would be entitled to his interest (and points if he's sophisticated enough to require them), and you would keep 100% of the remaining profits.There are only about 764 variations on this, but those are the basics of an equity interest and a debt interest in a flip.Just so you know, it usually works out that a hard money lender ends up with about 25% to 33% of the profit in a flip, for relatively little risk.

Are there any specific LVP brands to go with or any that I should totally avoid.

A buyer agent wants to avoid telling their client that they will loose their deposit due to an error made by the agent.

And what would you avoid if you were starting over today? 

Real estate agents can be a source of referrals, but I want to speak to an investor who has actually borrowed money from them.If you get private lender referrals from local investors, verify that they have recently lent on local properties and avoid paying large up-front fees, I think you will filter out most scammers and unprofessional lenders.

Be cautious with how much control or decision-making they have to avoid crossing into partnership territory from a legal or tax standpoint.

I do not see a credit score requirement, APR, or a few other things required.I understand you want to help Military Member or Veterans but it may be confusing.

Many lenders will require that the property be rented (or at least rent ready), and to get a finished appraisal value - not a "subject-to" valuation where it is based upon things being done / present that are not yet finished.  

I don't think it is even about avoiding turnover.