To answer your question about mortgages, call around. 

I suggest you learn some more before attempting a flip on your own.To answer your questions:Hard money comes from a company or institution that lends money.

if its a MF, always clean tenants with legit paperwork... means $ flow from day one.SPlitting into 4 seperate units carries its own costs, headache, all that... get legit answers from the city on this...

So knowing what you will personally be getting into should help answer your questions. 

So, the legal answer is, you can do that.

", what I mean is that when you get a deal brewing as a new investor, you can bring the details of the deals here and experienced investors will analyze it and help you structure it correctly.I hope this answers your question.

@Courtney Frickle has a post that I would like some answers about as well. 

Ill start by answering this question:"Would you say then that the REI would go ahead and sign a lease option agreement, which is contingent upon finding a tenant buyer within the next 30-60 days, and the seller can continue to market their house in the meantime Iwith the REI as an exclusion if the house is listed)?"

So like suggested above, living in your first property and fixing it up at the same time may be something you look into.But to answer your question, I bought my house before any investment property.

I have gotten mixed answers so if anyone knows the real answer that would be great.