(curious how many flood events it has made it through)

Learn to enjoy the burn.4) Attend events.

Aside from that, most wholesaler I know have a clause in the contract that allows them to back out in the event they cannot assign the property. 

Lucky for you, you are in a state that is booming.I advise you to join real estate events in your area.

We do local networking events for multifamily investors and have a Facebook community that is full of local investors as well that you're welcome to join.

I will write the property under my name and, hopefully, later would refinance it to pull out some cash.We're in a good relationship, so there are no worries regarding stealing money from each other or anything along these lines.My main concerns are tax-related; is that a taxable event, how much, is there a way to avoid/reduce it?

Real Estate Investors of Nashville (REIN) has around 600 members and hosts a main event monthly as well as multiple events throughout the month in various locations around middle TN. 

I'd recommend just going to a lot of community events and meeting people.

In any event, I didn't mean to get us off track in a discussion of non-RE investing.

Collateralize it with owned properties, not the properties to be acquired (at first).You can make your note a future advance note, in the event you ever need more.