He will be totally hands off and only role is to provide money.My goal is cash flow and another investment(same as my father).I have limited free cash on a tight budget but have access to a heloc loan for expenses if needed.

We take the T12 roll it forward, we strip out anomalies and one-time expenses and then layer in base assumptions and any known large expenses that are planned for the next 12 months.

As noted, commission are always negotiable as are brokerage options (full service to discount companies that pretty much just post it on the MLS and you work with all calls, offers, etc) and an agent can go over likely net out scenarios with you and give you an idea what you likely will be able to net after closing expenses and paying off the mortgage balance. 

When you think about it, only the flipper will know the expenses (not generally public record) so analysts or data aggregators can only go off publically available data.

I do have folks that don't book because of that.That is a good thing as not understanding the distance to get places will create bad blood and cause those 2 and 3 star reviews which no one wants to see.Like @John Underwood, our place isn't cheap so we don't get the folks that destroy places.The bottom line is that you are renting out an expensive asset to strangers for 3-10 days or whatever.

Plus it makes bookkeeping and doing taxes etc. more complicated and annoying/ expensive.

It's good practice in making the calculations needed to decide whether or not to pull the trigger on a potential deal.You soon learn that starting off as a Doctor is less advantageous than starting off as a Janitor, because the game presets your income and expenses based on the job title.

My total expense ratio on each property I own ranges anywhere from 40%-50% annually, but I also self-manage and am not a slumlord (I am pro-active with maintenance, not reactive).

A free seminar, a low cost workshop, and an expensive mentorship program4.

On paper we were slightly in the red but much of that is due to one-year expenses/repairs & allowable transportation costs to get up to the property for work days ourselves.