The question I was hoping to gain some advice/input on is how to establish my business partner's equity in the property.

At some point you will use a commercial lender and they are more likely to work with you with an established business.  

We'd love to spend more time with family, do more volunteer work, and establish a permaculture farm together -- and teach as many people as we can, as much as we know along the way! 

I would definitely be a bit nervous working with an out of state company myself...super important to do careful research to ensure they are legit and established like you said. 

We'd also like to meet with hard money lenders and bankers to establish local financing relationships. 

According to Anthony Ascuitto the developerCons: it’s new and not established.

An entity should be formed - LLC or C Corp. in which each has equity - the Operating agreement establishes who gets what, how and when.I prefer a C Corp. as that makes it easy to take profits as Capital Gains instead of Income, and you position can be sold by exchange of share.

The rental stage is much easier.To lower our stress, we limited our search region, hired a property manager, focused on nice areas with good tenants, did high quality fixes to last longer and lessen repairs, and established a relationship with a lender to simplify the mortgage process.

However, if it will stretch and stress you to the MAX, it is not worth gambling on future appreciation as I am sure you would make a nice profit selling now.....that's my two cents.

Eventually I'd like to establish a rental portfolio and enjoy the stability of passive income while still conducting flips.I'm interested in meeting folks from all over and look forward to learning as much as I can from the pros as well as the newbies.Take Care!