The owner was making money, which seemed to be ok with them, even if they were leaving an awful lot of money on the table by not going to much effort to do a good job.

Without properly exposing your property on the open market/MLS, you're potentially leaving $150k-$200k on the table to save $30k in this RED HOT MARKET.

I would of course be willing to partner with anyone who has a deal and needs capital, a contractor or some other value I can hopefully bring to the table.

We don't have funds to bring to the table to cover losses on short sale.

It really depends on your time table and how much cash you have in the bank.

I have a few excellent investor trained agents who know what makes a good deal and are willing to work hard FOR me at the negotiation table so I don't have to.

Equity is important because in most deals determine how much "discount" you can get.If I own a property worth 100k, and owe 80k, I have 80% LTV, 20% equity.That means I can only sell my house to you for at least 80k, without doing a shortsale or bringing cash into the table.

A gap funder, or any lender for that matter, will usually not bring anything to the table beyond money.

Often times I have heard the high level plan put on the table and then upon drilling into the plan find prerequisites on pricing or discounts to be unrealistic.

The first time, my investor was at the closing table to make sure he got his deed of trust (mortgage here in NJ).HOWEVER, how is your equity share (the 40%) being protected?