I will be keeping eye on things to make sure that it gets done, and will stay in communication with his lawyer. 

they normally look at the seller to give a lot of seller credits and the home has to pass their fairly rigid inspection criteria.. they dont want first time homeowners in homes that are in need of a lot of repair or deferred maintenance. the program basically is for those with poor credit and little to no money but can toe the line and get into home ownership.. 

I think that if you do the leg work and property acquisition, then 60/40 would be fair.

If you are buying land to sell immediately for a fair profit then how much of the HOA fees & rules apply to your property flip?

I ask a few questions such as:-Communication - were they responsive to emails and calls-Property care - any major issues / did they leave the property in good condition-Reason for leaving - this would give you more insight if there were issuesAnd always respect privacy if they are not willing to share.

He came to me by way of my mason, who also uses him.C.S. is really damned good at what he does, and a big part of this is that he's a great communicator.

Even if they did give me the time of day it doesn't seem very fair that I can't offer much to them in return.

In my limited experience, they add no real value to the process, and like you said, don't really know costs, and while ARV is fairly easy to determine, they are always aggressive on those, too.So, how do you not get taken to the cleaner?  

On the flip side having 2 residences in one building does bring efficiencies from a management/ownership standpoint.Finally, the payment structure you mentioned (30-40% until project completion) is fairly standard for pre-construction properties.

It's fair to charge for this additional work, but it's not nearly as much as placing a new tenant and shouldn't be as high.I charge 50% of a month's rent for placing a new tenant.