They have profited many times due to our management of the real estate. 

We've done a lot of deals together over the years and I appreciate all the work he's put in over the years especially when we were doing really lean deals and there wasn't a whole lot of profit there for him relative to the work he was doing. 

Can get it rent stabilized, sell 4 profit, rinse and repeat.

But the props were in your name and they had a loan against it and then when it was done they bought it from you and you made a profit ??? 

The marketing isnt that important in my opinion but the professional photo/ video is a huge game changer and I dont believe that someone is going to make much profit at .5% on the listing side.

I guess we could maybe have the builder agree to the cost of the build and if we sell for more or less then the profits would go up and down based upon the selling price.

I did just this, and in 4 years sold it for a $200k profit and that’s how I bought my home and build an ADU conversion.

You being a “partner” and then paying the “profit” to the builder makes no sense.

Cause you don't want to tell the original seller how much profit you're making?

Your profit is the difference between your adjusted cost basis and your net sale.Adjusted cost basis is your cost of acquisition plus any capitalized improvements minus depreciation.It is very possible that you could sell a property you have refinanced and generate no cash at the sale but still have a big tax bill because you sell it for more than you purchased it for.