The basic goals are:  1)  Cash flow/month to cover monthly bills; 2)  Profit to pay off personal debt.Once these Financial Goals are established, you can then "reverse engineer" your plan from these goals back to your current situation. 

To get started, I’m planning a house hack in central Florida.My question is this: at what stage is it appropriate to ask the seller for a profit and loss statement?

He got me interested when he talked about the three profit centers.

How many flippers run short of cash, or are seeing their profits eaten up by holding costs, and might be looking for a faster way out of a deal? 

There has to be some form of a written agreement on who gets what of the profit, who's in charge of maintenance, what happens when a partner wants out, who's on the loan/title... etc  I find it hard to believe that this person wouldn't just take this deal and run with it on their own since they are funding everything with their money and I won't be giving a dime.

But first, if you lived in that property for 2 out of the 5 years prior to when you sell it you can take the first $250K ($500K if married) of profit tax free - a much better deal than a 1031 exchange. 

Do the work nights and weekends. 4 months later you’ll have 40k in profit.

If you have a "partner" and are operating with a profit motive, by default you are a general partnership. 

HUD deals seem to be listed (usually owner occupant, non profit and government agencies for some period of time depending on the "insurability" of it) on the MLS.

What is a fair profit share with a private investor who will be hands off?