If you struggled to answer my question, let's draw an analogy.

I've seen a lot of investors find good properties, but then they struggle to find a quality manager and the deal turns sour.

There were struggles cleaning up books, bumping up rents, chasing down tenants, building processes, etc.

Tragically, my circumstances took an unexpected turn when my father passed away, leaving me struggling to cover his funeral expenses and putting me behind on rent.

@Eli Joffe the most general but applicable advice in your situation is to start focusing on high cash-flow properties with low equity growth potential in the beginning in order to have the cash to boot strap.Once you have a few properties under your belt, then start phasing in nicer homes which tend to be lower cash-flow with higher equity growth potentialThe former helps you boot-strap using more labor and the latter helps build wealth more passively and with less tenant struggles.

.: Thanks for the insights @Robert Ellis.I'm totally aligned with your views on lowest cost/risk and the idea of basing equity on the valuation of each partners contributions.I'm struggling with how to apportion equity (if at all) based on how my partner is proposing to do the construction financing; my land is collateral for the loan (I retain title vs transferring it or selling it to the partnership), the land is in second position at payout, I'm co-signing the loan, and my partner is not making an initial capital contribution.   

Basically a restricted unit can definitely burn out a capacitor and anytime you set a unit too low causing it to  struggle to keep up (ex. set at 69 but it never drops below 76…) will keep a unit running 24/7.

The alternative was them struggling to pay rent on the 1st and being late.

It's not the part-timers who are quitting but those who sought a full-time career in real estate.The article suggests that while some agents may struggle to make ends meet, those who excel will endure.

I have a potentially unique, but low barrier entry opportunity in front of me, but I am struggling to put the pieces together in a way the make sense for all.