Will bring cash to the table.  

If you take that focus off the table and understand this is a very complicated business that tends to be really lucrative over the long game, you will be ok.

I believe I hear what you are saying though, for sure -- that it's better, more fair, and more likely to get deals, if you yourself can show up to the table offering something.... in hard cashbut you still have to know how "fix and flip" works, how to renovate something, how to negotiate.... what contracts to do, how long things take.... etcthat was the concept I liked about Gator, is that it's a team that passes that niche off to the other person, who is good at that - and they can all structure deals together.... you have the deal guy.... the money guy.... the fix and flipper guy, etc. -- and they find deals that could be good for all of them - and everyone is helping each otherI think BiggerPockets will be a potentially pretty reliable place - I know that there's different roles, "finders", "buyers", "sellers".... maybe I can just find deals, and connect people together, and get some kind of small finder's fee for it, or something.... ok so that first 10-20k is important to just be able to provide - when getting into this....

There are times when we see deals on the table that won't produce any cashflow or not enough cashflow to meet our target hurdle rate but the tax benefits or appreciation potential may make the deal attractive. 

They key is to find out what you bring to the table to others; in this case to my mentor, my clients and eventually to my business partners. 

At the closing table I received the rest of December’s rent from the previous owner.

You might want to consider using your equity in the land as your contribution to a partnership with someone that brings that sorely needed experience to the table.

If you are already planning to buy out-of-state and use property management, you are leaving money on the table and may want to look into more passive strategies since you don't seem to want to do management and you will still need to manage the manager.2.

I'm coming up on policy renewal and, unfortunately, Obie no longer has a realationship with that carrier so I'll be curious to see what they bring to the table as other options.Overall, nothing negative to say about them.

Really what I am trying to figure out is what is the ratio of value for the various things that different partners would bring to the table like: down payment, long term management, rehab labor, acting as contractor for rehab but not doing the work yourself.