The fact they are complaining online might be an indication the property manager dealt with them properly so be sure to ask the manager for their side of the story.I hope this basic guide helps.

Basically someone I can offload parts of this project to in lieu of DIYing. 

I use the 50% as a guideline only...basically a sanity check on the more detailed numbers. 

Any feedback and insight would be greatly appreciated :)  The crash of 2008 was basically 5 markets.

You hire him based on your confidence that he can do the required job, at your level of quality, in your time frame for a reasonable price.....that's it.If you think its a good idea to hire the desperate and overly friendly, one leg guy on pain meds living on his boat waiting to sail off to wherever he wants, then by all means do it.....no red flags there.....The job you are looking to do sounds pretty basic......so it may be worth a shot....doesn't sound like you will be out of a lot of $$ if it goes southBut I would pay based on the job (not by the hour) and buy the materials myself and only pay as the work is done

While the north side of downtown has undergone a massive transformation in the last 5 years, there are still lots areas that have been left behind, and some pockets that may never change. 

The splits are basically the same, basically no split which I like.

Some banks will take a pre-approval letter from a hard money lender.The other option is to find a wealth partner that will basically let you use a bank statement, or a letter from his bank saying $X is in the account.

its why lenders run CREDIT and TITLE search Credit will get anything that is on their fico and lien search anything recorded in the county that the subject property or the person wants to buy in.. they can slip through though I am sure.. but then the judgement creditor needs to go to the county were the debtor bought and then file their judgement as a foreign judgement but at that point they are second to the new loan put on ... not a senior. although I think the term rental on your LLC would give other landlords pulling credit a clear indication that the debtor skipped on rent and could not BS there way through it... lending is tough right now anyway.. those type of folks basically don't get loans.. unless lender RMLO wants to try to monkey the credit which some don't have anything better to do and will do that.  

It basically means you will only have one down month in a 24 month period.