I didn't have a lot of money- but I could have been smarter about it.

You have to do your due diligence up front, but once you put your money in it is very passive and you just get your monthly or quarterly return (if you picked a good investment).

If you want to spend the money, you can split the water. 

My idea was to establish myself with some paid-off, cash flowing properties to make leveraging them for more investments a lot easier.I'd like to flip some houses to generate some cash, but  even knowing what I know I'm struggling to see how to make money doing so. 

If you have no debt and can save up a bit more money, before getting to the equity loan.

I don't know the rent amount or security deposit amount but if they're not paying, many times they don't have the money.

Question, with loan interest rates at a high currently and cash money sitting in the bank making 4-5%, maybe have your partner do a private loan for 6.5-7% short term until rates comes down??

How can I take this money and put it down on a couple properties and use them to negate the tax obligations? 

He gives off sleazy used car salesman vibes when communicating with him and I worry about giving him any money only to never hear from him again. 

Can I take out a hard money loan for the 43K plus the 40K rehab amount and have him owner finance the rest of the purchase price to me?