Whoever puts up the cash should have control of the property until the other partners defined contribution equals the cash.

We are first going to identify the define the different roles involved in real estate deals: what is their purpose, what talents do they need to have and how do they make money from the deal. 

The only way I would consider that is if my rental property has been on the market for a while, and a while is defined differently by all.

Maybe one of the loan gurus can help define the terms for us.

I've never really got a good definition on how to define this.  

Define "good."

Case law in CA and additional federal legislation has gone on to define "notice of foreclosure" as the date of trustee's sale.  

First you should define your goal.1. 

Thought this Zillow article was contrarian and interesting: Defining the Riskiest Markets for Home Purchases.

In my model I have two main spreadsheets: (1) cash flows so that I can calculate returns, plan for the future, etc. and (2) income and expenses as defined by the IRS in order to calculate taxes, which will then flow to the cash flow sheet.