It was a wholesale deal and he brought buyers to the table who eventualy enabled us to close the deal.

I have seen 50-50 splits a lot (although that is usually if one partner brings all (or almost all) the funds to the table, and since you are also bringing cash, a modification might be needed.

There will come a point in time where I may feel like I could benefit from from more experienced investors, but I feel it is important to do as much research on my own as possible to fully grasp the concepts of investing before i ever set foot in a classroom or put a dollar on the table

So needless to say I couldn't get enough sales to the closing table fast enough to actually make a decent income.

Do you not write checks using a desk or table of some sort?

There are more than 1 way to skin to get your deal to the closing table.

Then you subtract out the assumed mortgage of $1.07mm and you are left with $425k cash that you need to bring to the table.

He was supposed to call my phone number while at the business location to see that it rang there (he didn't, he just pointed to my cell phone on the dining room table and said "Well, there's your phone.").

And to back up, if I had not had a formal education I doubt I would have seen the opportunities in other industries or have been accepted by other professionals (socially and professionally) to earn a seat at the table so to speak.As an example, I made a home loan to an engineer, then he came to me for a business loan.

But for the first deal, you want their cash on the table right up front.