As a frequent reader and occasional poster on this board, I value the opinions I find here immensely and thus, wanted to ask the group for advice on how to handle my situation. In a nutshell:

o Live in SF area of CA, have a day job (which I greatly enjoy) and family so minimal time to devote to RE.
o Have some cash (up to $50k depending on other projects I may have going at any time), can draw on a HELOC, and excellent credit.
o Own 2 rental properties (SFR) that both cash flow.

My question is regarding where to look next for investments. First off - I'm hoping to focus on generating more cash (via rehabs or any other appropriate channel) in the near term rather than building up further rentals (though I would consider holding another 1 or 2 properties even in the near term if cash flow was good). My strategy has been looking to partner with someone out of state on rehabs where I provide the cash/credit and they do everything else (find discounted property, rehab it, and market/sell it). I am finishing up one of these soon which is going fairly well but as I was thinking about it, am I selling my possibilities short?

As I look at an opportunity to partner on, I look for 70% ARV as many of the experts advise. However, that is when an individual is going at it alone - not with a partner. In my case, if the profit split is 50/50, I'm only getting half the benefit of the 30% discount. Obviously I don't expect to get something for nothing but I feel like maybe I'm missing an opportunity here since it's my money on the table vs. my partner's sweat equity. If things go south, I'm holding the bag financially and they only have their time and effort invested.

To be fair and honest with what I bring to the table - with my skill set and existing knowledge, I can't reasonably expect to take on a rehab by myself even locally so doing so from afar is obviously not possible. Given that, does this seem like the right place of RE for me to be playing? Is there a different strategy that may better suit my short-term goal of using my cash/credit to generate more cash? Perhaps I just need to accept that because I am coming from a passive position where I'm looking for something turnkey with little more than putting a very critical eye to the end-to-end transaction, that I should lower my expectations.

Some of the obstacles/concerns I've run into over the past year:
1. Because of a strong financial position, people want me to partner with them on luxury properties. Definitely too risky for me at this point.
2. Many people looking for a partner are too inexperienced for my taste. I want someone with a track record.
3. Many people looking for a partner don't set the bar high enough on an investment. They look at absolute numbers and try to sell me based on that (e.g. $20k expected return on a $200k house). Yes, $20k sounds nice but 90% ARV doesn't sound too good to me.
4. In my opinion, many people don't have any idea how to value property. Zillow is not even close in many cases and even recent local comps need to be scrutinized by looking at Days on Market, Condition of House, Direction of Overall Market, etc.
5. People trying to sell me on "cash back or cash out" in order to meet my goal of generating cash. Cash doesn't come from thin air - if I'm getting extra cash, it's being added to the debt load of the property so I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul. I will have to pay it back some day. I can just as easily draw $50k out of my HELOC if just having cash in my pocket were my goal. This one especially bothers me because people try to sell it as though your getting something for nothing!
6. On my side, I'm comfortable buying and landlording from afar but not with completing both sides of a transaction where I could buy an undervalued property and then flip it (with or without any updating). My biggest concern is my ability to estimate exit/selling price on the property.

I'm sure I've left some things out but this is already lengthy and should give a decent background on myself and my goals. Any and all advice, criticism, etc. is welcome!