Or will it be a big fat "it depends?"

When you buy cash and leave your money in the property, your invested money gets old, wrinkled, fat, and extremely lazy.

If your strengths compliment someone elses then you should partner at whatever split you feel comfortable with until you can build a track record.. just remember pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered 

When I started running the numbers he said I was "too high" and we could trim the fat and still make profit.

Plus the other people who are getting those deals ahead of time have fat pockets and can close with cash.

I like that too because those are nice big fat proceeds  checks  they feel good.

If that is the case, then the number you can plug into your calculator for your labor is a big fat goose egg...and your profit calculation should reflect that.Therefore, what you are actually trying to add into the equation is an arbitrary number for "opportunity costs". 

For one thing you get super fat.  

I was given an implanted cardiac defibrillator that runs on lithium batteries..

They devoured knowledge like a fat kid on cake.