My non professional suggestion is if you like a property, make an offer, but make sure there is a clear contingency of obtaining financing with terms ie conventional with rate up to x and y points, etc in the purchase contract offer that you are comfortable with. 

Say, if the GC usually charges $50/hour for his or her own time and has a standard 15% mark-up on the invoiced charges for labor and materials a fair exchange may be (1) x number of personal hours devoted to the project at no charge to the partnership per week and (2) reduction in mark-up from 15% to 7.5% in exchange for (3) y percentage of profit.   

I had tried putting ads on Craigslist years ago, but I will definitely try again for y own company.

I don't know if this is what you looking for, but there's a company like hometap/unison that will give you cash for your home equity without monthly payment, but at the end of the term (10 y/30 y) you have to give up part of your equity/appreciation to the lender.

The benefit to the owner occupant is that they are building equity, and don't have to worry about landlords, CAM, or etc, but they pay for that with association dues (which eat up your cash flow).

"What about if it were $Y"? 

Hi, @Ross Y.

Then run the numbers and determine if you're okay with it taking you x-months to re-coup y-cash out of pocket (Cash On Cash Return). 

Make sure they know your criteria ex: credit score = X, income =  Y times the rent. 

Originally posted by @Andrey Y.