Mortgagee can not be paid for their labor from the rehab funds." 

Turnkey is the mutual fund (or ETF) of RE investments, and self-managed rentals are the more labor intensive, do-it-yourself option.

I have owned rentals through the S&L crisis of the 80's, the recession of the 90's, the irrationally exuberant optimism of the early 2000's, and through the latest subprime crash.  

There is one advantage that you can get from investors, they can pay advance for materials, then you can buy materials through credit/credit card, so that will give you funds to pay labor; or at minimum, you don't have to front materials in case they buy their own materials.

Labor is not skin in the game, it can only be recognized after completion and a sale, we call it sweat equity. 2.

(Itemized for labor and materials is best, This way you can see what your getting!)

After food and labor is added in the numbers get pretty tight.

However, if 2 years is your target, that may not work either.What would be optimal, I think, is to connect to a community bank that will give you a renovation or construction loan (which can typically get you 12-24 mos) then refi that out into the conventional.

You can do a contrsctor look up on the dept of labor and industry page.

I feel in California and hopefully this does not offend anyone there was alot of immigrant labor that would allow you to keep costs down.