Basically what will happen is that if you try to skirt the IRS laws regarding adding your own sweat equity to the basis of the house, they will likely unravel however many companies and entities you've thrown up to get around the tax laws.  

Also perfect for home owner to keep and instantly build sweat equity ."

Most of the houses you would see listed on MLS does not foot the bill, but if you are creative with financing, buy "ugly" houses, or are handy and can create value add with your own sweat equity, it's completely attainable.

As Suzanne mentioned if you can walk the property with a contractor great but if it is your first property and you plan to put in some sweat equity it may be hard to get a contractor to walk the place and give you a bid.In the beginning I would create spreadsheets detailing out costs for each room needing work including the price of materials, labor (if any) and an overage. 

Built cash from my duplex and W2 job to pay for the rehab, along with sweat equity, and house hacked for 1 year.

But again, 1500 over...don't sweat it.

From my reading, Mike's $300/mo cash flow cost him $10K+ in cash out-of-pocket, plus a ton of sweat equity as he admits to doing all the repairs himself on a 4-plex.  

what would the labor costs be on this and/or could you give it some "sweat equity" and have them pay for the supplies?

I know 203b work has to be done by a licensed contractor, so the "sweat equity" kind of isn't there.Does doing something like this make sense?

In the mean time, take a little cash flow and use the mortgage interest write-off and depreciation to offset some of your short term capital gains from the other flips.You can also trade sweat equity from a tenant/buyer for option consideration.