Homeowners simply refused to leave their houses. 

An A property in an A area will have a much lower cap than a C/D property in a C/D area.Also, properties on the west or east coast will simply have worse caps than say the rust belt.In your area Mesa caps > Glendale caps > Phoenix caps (generally speaking).

Never think this is a waste of time, it is simply good business.Now, on to your numbers.

If he is going to simply give you money in the hopes you don't mess up, ROI is ok.Sounds like you need to do a LOT of homework.

Buy and hold is simply holding property longer term for income and appreciation along with tax benefits, all good, I don't know of may owners who hold properties forever, usually you're looking at 7 to 10 years on a house, you can go much longer in MF and commercial.

It may simply be that I should find a nice cheaper place to rent out, and purchase a rental out of market.

He is hoping he can simply find a buyer ready to build and be done with this.Any comments or opinions are very welcome.http://www.trulia.com/homes/California/Oceanside/s...Thanks

The rest simply want to do the minimum and be lazy. 

Not because its bad advice but because there are simply different types of hard money lenders and the ones commenting above are not the right ones that fit what I believe you're looking for.There are some hard money lenders that will lend you a percentage of the purchase plus rehab. 

Don't let the other side draft the PSA for you, because then you'll end up fighting over rights that are typically afforded buyers, like the inspection contingency, and the negotiation will drag on.When a client brings in a contract drafted by the other side, it often takes me more time and costs the client more to modify a crap bootleg contract (that often looks like it was thrown together in 5 minutes by the seller's 14-year-old son) than it would be simply to draft a clear and concise agreement from scratch.