I have the passion and have the dedication, however I lack a starting point and am looking for a place to hit the ground running.I am very excited to spend time here, listening and leading!

Revealing HOAsYou may want to think about this much more and more thoroughly before going forward.At the very least, the time and huge amounts of money that must spend will never be returned, whether you succeed or not.Even more important, you may be creating your own nightmare.

Spending a couple hundred on a high quality home inspection is much better than several thousand for the "oh no!!"

I estimate with everything I will spend about 50-60 in rehab and that is on the high side.I see that your down in Tacoma, I have noticed some pretty good deals down in that area still.

Alternatively, you could arrange an earn-out whereby you retain 80% - 90% of his portion of the the cash-flow-before-taxes (CFBT) until he has earned out your half of the property {this could be done even if there is an existing mortgage in-place}.Be warned that if you have a mortgage and your names are both on it, the lender (especially a bank) may force the remaining partner to refinance (rather than simply issue a "release" of the other partner from the mortgage).There are others here like Jon Holdman, and @Bill Gulley, who have deep experience and better know the financing options available to you in the U.S.A.Whatever you do going forward, spend a little time with a real estate / partnership attorney and get things in writing.

My long term goal is to spend years learning the real estate business to eventually buy and flip houses for my retirement.

If the agent spends their time with a buyer looking for a $120,000 home then they will possibly make twice the money.

Margins are smaller, properties harder to find and investors choosing other ways to spend extra funds.

Curt Smith Indeed life is short. your statement reminds me of the PARETO PRINCIPLE: You want to spend 80% of your time on the 20% of deals that will give you 80% of the profits/cash flow.

At best this property would break-even.San Fransisco has an (overall) average rent-to-value ratio of about 0.4% -- far below what an investor can get in other markets with stronger economics and lower purchase prices.I think eventually you'd find a piece of property with a positive cash-flow, but the length of time you'd have to spend to sift through enough properties to find that "diamond in the rough" would make the effort questionable.Additionally, the very high land cost under those properties carries a high level of exposure and risk for any investor since the first thing to drop when the housing market turns and cycles down are land values.I hope to meet you one of these days Ben. :-)Continued success!