When I see it the amount is 12-15% but I see people in your position utilize that huge equity as an easy way to get private short term money from friends and family and then clean it up on your cash out refinance on the new property.At the same time look at your cost you pay for the existing loan vs a refinance. 

spend 2 hours a day on here and make friendsreach out to a few people each weektell people your storycontribute GREAT advice where you canbe consistent

I hope for you that it's not the former :-)Make sure to stay in touch with the PM and make sure the seller doesn't tell them not to spend the money to turn over the unit.Looking on the full half of the glass, these are 4 units you can push the rents on day one instead of waiting for a lease to renew with one of the tenants in the building.

ITS huge money for those fulfillment companies as in private 30 million dollar jets HUGE>. 

I spend a lot of time looking at real estate as a RE agent but what are some things I can be keeping an eye out for to help me find my first deal?

@Brian Dombrowski any time you are providing private money, whether for equity or as a loan you best bet is to have a lawyer that specializes in RE draw up the agreement and assist you with the structure.There are a dozens answers to your question depending on many items, with who and if all the investors are under the same LLC etc. etc.Every investor I know that has done private financing had their lawyer draw up an agreement that the "borrower" accepted and signed. 

ROI on paying a mortgage down, after you spend 5 hours in spreadsheets to "prove" this to yourself, will be exactly equal to the interest rate (assuming no PMI).How does your interest rate compare to the returns you could get putting the money to work for you elsewhere?

Or would I have better luck looking for a private lender to finance the down payment?

I am currently learning as much as I can about REI and spending 4-6 hours a day reading, listening and watching, along with occasionally evaluating properties. 

Follow up question on the repair costs:  make sure there is a written limit as to how much the PM can spend without contacting owner (ours defaults to $250, or could be more or less, depending on owner's decision).