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?

ALL,, even parts of East Cleveland, ( I know what you're saying this guy is crazy east clev, well pricing there has double tripled or more and IMO going higher, those in the know understand why ) Parma good luck making money there, you missed that boat by 5 years, even GH prices have tripled or more over the last 5, 6 7 years.

Without that, you have to be able to not only pay your own expenses, but also your first rental plus your second rental mortgage (at least on paper) with your other sources of income (ie money from your W2 job).  

Hi,I’ve done a few hard money deals and I’ve been trying to cash out refinance a rental that’s just about finished.