I left this painter I got for a week to paint.

Either what a painter charges you or for the paint if you do it yourself. 

On lower end flips, I just ask my painter to mix whatever he's got to make an earth tone; whatever is cheap, but good enough.

Would you paint an apartment that he is turning over because his painters are busy working on other units?

Painter?

I would hire a (good) painter and paint the interior trim around the front door and all of the interior doors white.

I would rather not have 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to go over dark purple and greens, I had a painter mention there is a paint out that truly does cover in one coat with these dark colors.  

My electrician, plumber, and painter guy all had access when I scheduled work with them, they were all licensed and bonded so they were covered and so was I. 

From my personal experience, as intuition and common sense would support, working 'around the system' comes with heavy risks.I had one guy (1099 type worker) in working that said he was renting somewhere in DSM where the owner told him that they were without a certificate.The painter said he separately had someone come by that said they were with the city and told him to stop paying rent.Obviously this was impossible for me to verify - but served as a good warning. 

When you purchase that property, you hire real estate agents, title companies, handymen, painters, plumbers, advertisement, people to mow the lawn while vacant and so on.