One way to save some money, especially if you are local is to split the job. 

They would be putting in some money and their service as sweat equity, and we would be putting up money and my wife’s services. 

What can go wrong, how to prevent those things from going wrong in a JV and tips for ways to solve those problems when they do go wrong.As a JV money partner, those are the most important issues.

@Geoff Engel If you don't want to be a landlord but still want to be involved with investing you could be a private money lender for flips or in partnerships and bring the money to the deal.

Having a vacancy costs money!

This would be a waste of everyone's time and money.

I would rather do this and retain my money then give it to the bank as interest. 

Pretty easy to make 2% or more when you're spending that kind of money.

If you achieved this by paying all cash, then you are losing money. 

You can still make money on flips here though.