If real estate investors were asked to pick between traditional borrowing methods and hard money lenders, the latter would be their choice as deals in real estate often occur in a short period of time leaving the former as a method to obtain funding. If the investor does not have a decent credit standing, this does not help his ability to borrow money from banks even when a deal does not have to be closed on a tight deadline.
So, for all practical purposes, keeping a list of hard money lenders is the best thing you could do when it comes to the financing the purchase and rehabbing of real estate properties. Actually, if one carries a pre-qualification letter while visiting real estate agents who are dealing with distressed properties that are owned by financial institutions, your offers will carry more weight as opposed to those who do not do this.
Most real estate investors do not necessarily have cash with them to buy property that you are offering, so if you do have a list of hard money lenders, you can point them in the direction of obtaining that money while also selling them the property.
However, for this to really work, one must scrutinize their buyers and their ability to pay mortgages on time and at the rate specified before referring them to the hard money lenders that you have in mind. If you can do this successfully, you will have a lot of investors who will be interested in buying from you because you not only have the property but also sources of money that they can borrow as well.