It would depend I think some on how much of the work you will do yourself, if any and if you have the time.I personally would buy the gutted one (depending on the structure of course) because I would be doing almost all the work myself and I am pretty sure I could have it looking really nice for less than $30k in fix up.There are a lot of variables.I am anxious to see what others will say!!

You may have to register/license your business, it depends on a lot factors such as location, legal business structure, etc.

And, a nice benefit is that my buddy can write off a portion of travel expenses whenever he goes to visit family because he will be performing a business function.In general, what is a good structure to use for a deal like this?

The way we structure our leases requires them to give us 45 days notice prior to move out and to allow us to start showing the unit least 1 once a week so we usually rarely have any gap from one tenant to the next.We haven't had any problem tenants yet since we screen quite thoroughly but if something were to happen, I guess we would prefer it to happen in an average updated home rather than one that's completely redone.Now if we were to start flipping, we would probably redo everything but for buy and hold in our target areas market rent, average to + average condition, seems to work well.We have seen some renovated units in our areas and they look a lot nicer but the rental premium isn't too much of a difference and it seems they take longer to rent out.

Just a thought on a different structure..p.s.

They seem structured to only provide the full escrow service.I'm in Northern CA.

I would be skeptical myself; partnerships come in many different forms but only use one that is structured the way YOU want.

So if you have 1031 in mind as the exit strategy for the property you are buying right now that involves other partners, how would you structure the deal so you can take your share to do 1031 exchange when the property is sold?

It's nothing personal - just the corporate structure they have to follow.

Would love to structure the lease to be x per sq ft plus percentage as I know it would be a success.