I bought a duplex in Philadelphia in Oct. 2016, fixed it up, moved into one half, and am renting out the other.

Problems are: 1) how to find a contractor to do the job in an area I'm not familiar with and accept pmt at closing and 2) how do I get my half back at closing?

That 1-3 years that you are planning to spend in a 2 BR apartment could be spent in half of a Duplex that you own with 95% FHA financing, with the other tenant paying most of the note payment.That three years of equity, reinvested using Section 1031 for the next 30 years, could easily turn into half a million dollars.And your monthly expenses would be even lower.You would also be building a solid credit history.Just a thought.Good Luck on your real estate investing.  

. $14,000 is about half of what I'll need for another house.

Here's an idea.Instead of a new company, or creating a partnership, why not consider a Joint Venture.This will allow your LLC and the partner to enter into a JV Agreement for just this one project.You can specify all of the terms within the agreement, how the project will be initiated, each contribution, duties of each, how profit will be computed, when and how the project will be completed and dissolved.At the end, each party reports half of the income and expenses, just like a General Partnership, but, depending on state law, there is no requirement for filing papers.Once you work everything out with the partner, both of you go to the same Attorney, have all of the information ready, tell him exactly what you want.Don't try to write something yourself.Something to consider.  

The owner is out of town and half completed the rehab 7 years ago and its just been sitting.  

I just reviewed my PM sheets for the year in my HOUSTON properties.  1st half of the year I had PM who charged 10% PM fees and had BUTT load of maintenance costs.  

I am a half hour north of you in Harrisburg Pa.

cut my mortgage in half, or live for free in the duplex. 

We are looking at trying to find something that we could rent say half the summer and use the other half.