Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.Here is a great list of questions to ask a potential accountant:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/70447-questions-to-ask-a-cpaAlso check out the www.NAEA.org page in your search.

The payroll is completely bloated.

One more thought: If one is merely a lien holder and not an owner, I would think the "interest" income from the equity share note would be considered interest thus not subject to payroll taxes.

Joe works on the property and earns his profits from labor, no money is loaned to Joe but Joe could take a drawing from amounts earned, as payroll.

Depending on the eviction laws for the area and sophistication of the tenants it can take months and months to get them out.You can make a request that the unit be delivered tenant free on the upstairs unit as a condition of the sale.

Clients with larger amounts of money are more sophisticated and look at taxes and depreciation as much as the income and how much TIME the investment will take to produce the anticipated return.With commercial you generally need in the hundreds of thousands to get started or if you have 50k to 100k you can partner up with others to go into a bigger property.

You're probably not dealing with "accredited investors" (a IRS term, google if for specific requirements) or even "sophisticated investors" (a less well defined term.)

Larger companies, sophisticated investors or developers use accounting terminology, why do small investors need to learn something different?

That said, I'm guessing there are probably less sophisticated and experienced buyers out there who will rely on your rehab numbers, so that's another reason you might want to have them.

The lenders point of view is the larger commercial loans the buyers tend to be more seasoned, sophisticated, and informed and have more liquidity and net worth.