I found the property from direct mail, negotiated seller financing with low down, and then leveraged a partnership for the acquisition and rehab costs.

I bought a hurricane damaged home here in Panama City with a low-down, seller financed note and leveraged a partnership for the rehab costs.

Education is clearly the first step because you can do it with less resources and before you actually know what you want to pull the trigger on. however once the ball is rolling, you need to keep on learning all it can all come crashing down. 

My Dad and I are syndicators (mostly Texas properties) and we brought on 7 capital raisers on our last deal to raise $3M - each raiser earned a piece of equity in the General Partnership and participated in both acquisition fees and cash flow.

<--these are investor returns... the returns are even higher when you are the syndicator or a part of the General Partnership putting together the deal and managing the asset. 

Where I’m confused is to best word a partnership agreement to be reimbursed and how that would affect my cost basis in comparison with my partners?

I’ve looked in the past but never pulled the trigger.

For my first time its just a little scary for me to pull the trigger on things, so hearing some of these things help reassure me that I am focused on the right things, and not what might being right to me but the buyers.Jerry Brainard

It should be a partnership.4.

Ask about any mortgage and due on sale clause that might trigger the mortgage coming due.