Keep in mind my buddy is 28, a manager at a large tech company and very responsible/clean.

Partner #2 married couple:  W is the buying selling RE agent on every house in LLC and Husband oversees contractor/project.   

This also comes with advantage of anonymity of owner and address.3) Operating LLC (Y) will be a single member Wyoming LLC and works as a Property Management responsible for day to day operations such as collecting rents, making mortgage/insurance/HOA payments etc on each LLCs (A,B,C) behalf.

I'm self-managing ~60 units on the south side and for the most part, doing great.

I have some experience in rehabbing/flipping. just finished a project.

I will add that when the LO and I ran the numbers it was for a client who manages their own properties here locally which surely helped. 

Hey Zack,I’m in Santa Barbara and flip often - currently have 8 projects.

Another way of thinking about this is self-managing your property; you wouldn't report "management fees" in expenses and then have that portion in "self-employment" income. 

Now you're saying you are going to tie up a lot of cash, cash that could actually be making you money, for a year, and then go into a very large rehab (time and cost) project hoping to make money on it,...how? 

I am looking for $150 a door after ALL (PITI, vacancy, capex, maint, 10% prop management) expenses.