@Marvin Mitchell sounds like you're drawn to the aspect of forced appreciation.

If you are taking out debt to put up your money (i.e. from a HELOC), you should also account for the interest on the debt payments.There are lots of tales of partnerships going bad, so I highly recommend getting the partnership in writing, covering all aspects.

I wanted to understand every aspect of real estate and know it well.

You can try and negotiate almost every aspect of the deal.

I have been doing my own research on real estate and the business aspect of it.

As I am fresh out of college (and I stayed local for it) I am new to even the simple aspects of home/property buying hence why I wound up here. 

If the total cost is $40,000 you will have no idea what aspect cost what.

They make adjustments for all aspects of the differences in the property including location.

Something I'm considering doing, and I'll preface by saying I haven't researched every aspect of this plan to see if it's viable yet, is using a hard money lender to purchase and renovate a fixer upper house for myself.

You’d also have to meet the active participation test.There is one aspect of this to keep in mind, it’s that you do get to carry forward those “suspended” losses.