Will be much more functional once he adds his IDX search tool as you previously suggested.

My entire first floor is a modern functioning office, but I’ve never claimed it for tax purposes.

You will want to start building relationships and partnerships with active investors at local REI MeetUps so you can learn and start building your team.Good luck Rene.

I keep the $990 difference on the sell / buy back of the partnership shares as compensation for finding the deal.

And as far as a investor allies, I've introduced my older brother to REI and he seems to be soaking up the info and loving it just as much as I am, He deffinitley seems interesting in getting into REI so should me and him develop a partnership or should I be finding a partnership with someone who has experience and then later introduce my brother to the mix?

Not to divert too far, bankruptcy searches are conducted as a function of obtaining an abstract of title.  

My local property manager will oversee any necessary rehab and in the mean time, the property is fully functional (just beat up) and has tenants in place.  

When we first talked about the deal, we discussed it would be 50/50 partnership after all costs and fees were paid off to the bank, realtors, etc.

If you choose to stay in SF to invest,  seek out JV partnerships with other established investors in the area. 

I have read every forum/post I could find about each one, but would love some pro's/con's type of feedback.I'm not willing to pay a huge upfront fee to get started, but okay with giving a split of my commissions and a small partnership/training start up fee.