While sophistication of your equity partners (private money lenders) will vary between residential and commercial, the principle of raising private capital is the same.You need to develop your own system which allows a constant stream of PML even when you don't need the funds and/or don't have an active deal under contract.For example; I raise private capital by offering free educational workshops for people with self-directed IRAs.

A person who has spent his 2000 to 4000 minimum CPA practice hours doing foreign currency conversions at Deloitte for a Belgian energy company may not know the first thing about real estate or anything else.

Go search the topic "Lifestyle Asset University" here on Bigger Pockets and you will see a longer thread with a lot of opinions (most are not members) but still worth a read as there are a half a dozen paid members from our group who have commented on that thread.We were formerly called Lifestyle Asset University, but I didn't realize that you couldn't use the word University in your company name here in Utah so we changed our name to Vodyssey. 

(owns a CRM company)Wholesaler in Akron - "What types of homes do you usually look for when you are looking off-market in Akron?"

There are sites out there like passive pockets as well as this site where you can find out a lot from people who have invested with that fund.

In this option your agent would either get paid from you directly in your closing costs OR from the seller via seller concessions.like Russell said, if you are comfortable with the transaction and understand what you are signing and you don't need things explained and you have connections with inspections and title companies then go for it.

Also a good pm company will provide a P&L every month.

I work for Evernest, a full-service PM company, here in Birmingham. 

I've asked my clients a similar question and have developed tools for them to minimize this, but I find there are a few different types of clients.Manager managed - these folks have no issues as they simply upload their year end statement from their property manager, their 1098 mortgage statement and any other one-off expenses they may have paid for outside of the management company. 

Larger company -- tried to escalate to the owner.