What is the range of fees typically paid to a hard money vs a private lenderThank you,Matt

To me, for funds already in retirement accounts, it is a no brainer.A couple of the benefits of holding rentals inside of retirement funds vs stocks is that you can essentially use leverage which you are not allowed to do when buying securities. 

I'm sure this doesn't typically happen but the guy walked through, said everything looked good and charged us $350 to write a letter to the inspector saying he certifies the concealed work. 

This jist of the rules are no mixing with disqualified parties, which essentially mean linear relatives: parents, grand parents, kids, kids in law, grand kids.

They also get  30% split of profits above 7% annual return.The 1.5% origination fee is a commission essentially for bringing the deals to the investors and is paid as equity in the deal, not cash.My questions are these:1) Is an origination fee/commission standard for a scenario like mine?

You might also try someone like TD Ameritrade or Schwab which is really an investment account to trade stocks, but they typically offer some banking services as well. 

You could house hack temporarily and then move out, typically a lender will require you to live there for 12 months or some other specified amount of time.

Which is exactly what it sounds like, you're essentially buying a condo that's rented like a hotel.

Is it typical for larger homes to  command a higher LTV(80-85%)  from cash buyers since the potential profit is larger dollar wise?

They typically have one or two inspectors which means your plan and your inspections can easily drag out.