Higher co-ops and incentives are being advertised, etc.

We'd need much more insight into the OP's life, life goals, skills, strengths and weaknesses, investment objectives and risk tolerances before providing a real good answer to this questions. 

@Jack B.Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like OP wants to take responsibility for the debt since he will be splitting profits after the initial investment is repaid.

There are all sorts of nasty tactics that are used to make a listing unviewable - the one mentioned in the OP, the removal of the key from the lockbox, changing the lockbox combination, etc.  

BIG ops there.My preference is BIG city.

Only gas companies can answer the OP's question, really. 4-6 weeks is normal for busy utility companies, and WOs are issued to service a client, either new or reconnecting service, they guide their employees where to go and what to do, pretty much like a scope of work and timeline.

So the notion mentioned in the OP about getting a mortgage to attach a CFD/LC is utterly false.  

It will be worth it on a JV split, but the OP is looking for 1 a year, and the fact that he is willing to risk with someone inexperienced makes me think the deals will be somewhere around 200k-300k to start with that, 20-40k is doable, 50%, 10-20k for 6-8 months of work is not really worth it.

Anyway, do you think the OP has a duty to notify the other tenants in the building of said incident.  

Like I said in the OP, the buy & hold investors are outnumbering the flippers in this area (but even so, there's still something to be said that the area is getting as much action as it has had one way or the other).