For 10% of the rent per month, they'll usually handle everything from marketing the home, showing it, drawing up lease agreements, extensions, rent collecting, maintenance coordinating, etc. 

Substantial services do not include the furnishing of heat and light, the cleaning of public areas, trash collection, and such.When extraordinary services are provided, the rental is treated as a trade or business and reported on Schedule C regardless of the average rental period.

The SLREIA and Utah REIA meetings have a lot of collective experience.

Just because you can do something does not mean you shouldAs to whether a tenant will actually collect? 

I don't see how they could send a collection agency to you or anything if you didn't sign anything with them. 

I want to one day be a big lender, funding deals and pursuing my career in music / speaking.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I wanted to tap the collective knowledge of some structures to have an investment model for buy/hold without locking my own money up.The pain point is the exit.

You want to minimize the chance of being without a chair if the music stops (and having to chase the market down to sell).If you don't have a lot of experience rehabbing, which it didn't sound like you do, then I'd say it's safer to stick to a smaller rehab.

Every month he sends the payment after collecting their shares of the bill.

That's great advice because you need to be cognizant of Fair Debt Collection laws.