Hello my name is Carolyn , my husband Ron and I are just beginning to consider flipping houses, we are semi retired in the Daytona Beach, Fl area , we own and operate a state licensed Roofing company and would like to find others in the area who we might consider partnering with, if there is a good fit, Ron is a retired carpenter with hundreds of remodeled homes to his credit, hope everyone has a blessed day and finds the true Joy of friendship.

Why not just save all of the cash flow, add your personal savings to it and use this to save enough for a downpayment on a multifamily property?

Specific wording in a contract isn't necessarily going to save you either. 

He plans on retiring by 2020.

Agreed with @Ben McMahon .... impressive that you have 11k saved up first of all at that age.

This will diminish my saving greatly, but will leave me with around 6k.

You might look up Upen Patel from The Federal Savings Bank here on biggerpockets. 

He plans on retiring by 2020.

Why would you pay that loan off completely and start over when you can leverage leftover money you save each month and purchase more real estate?  

Foundations are not something we ever want to try and cut corners or "go cheap" on as it will bite you seriously hard in the future......There are times when I have wanted to save money and wished I would have just paid what it would take to execute the job right up front,,,, causes much less heart and headache in the future....