And you also don't say you have a big pile of cash or fat income that you're looking to deploy. 

He bought when it was low, experienced a bunch of appreciation and rental growth, and is now going to sell for a fat profit and move onto bigger projects@Jason OngThe tree comment was probably because the area with the most trees in town is East Sacramento, which is one of the pricier areas in the city.

It was a big fat waste of time and effort.

Their refrigerator shelving is held together with tape, (that way when they moved in); they bought a stove so they could have more than one working burner, the downstairs bathroom has leaked so much the lino is coming up, the fence is held up with props and the gates are history. 

Or will it be a big fat "it depends?"

When you buy cash and leave your money in the property, your invested money gets old, wrinkled, fat, and extremely lazy.

If your strengths compliment someone elses then you should partner at whatever split you feel comfortable with until you can build a track record.. just remember pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered 

Remember that there’s a lot of other things that can happen - as a new investor you’ll want to account for vacancies, repairs, and a lot of those repairs could be expensive - water heater, burners, plumbing stacks etc.

When I started running the numbers he said I was "too high" and we could trim the fat and still make profit.

Brought it home and one of the burners wouldn't light.