I agree, no one really wakes up one day and starts a lending business, it takes times to fully emerge yourself and truly understand the details.

We self perform most of the trades (or direct labor).

We won't always have a period where interest rates were at emergency levels for close to a decade and large swaths of money chasing projects in the venture space offering pre-revenue companies $6M+ pre-money valuations.  

He evaluates deals in my area and when he spots one, he sends me out to evaluate using his "trade methods", in exchange he is offering me a profit share, knowledge, and and has asked me to sign a 2-year non-compete.I'm not sure what I'm exposing myself to by signing this non-compete.

The loan is secured like trade fixtures with a UCC filing.The other model is leased panels which is kind of interesting as well. 

I had trades lined up financing in place and a lot of travel time to and from the property.

In the future, you could consider putting a lock box on the house for emergency access and give out the lock box code to someone that would need to gain access, be that police, emergency crews or the plumber.

Just wondering if anyone has ever used Legal zoom to start a business/LLC or for trade-marking a logo???

There may be a trade off in keeping some bank debt to solidify that relationship.

Below are some things you may wish to consider, as to which Corporate Enity is best, for your Business Model as well as your REI Goals and objectives.Flipping PropertiesIf the primary objective of your real estate business, or one of your real estate businesses, is to buy, potentially fix up an existing property and resell it within one year, the Internal Revenue Service can consider that to be an active trade or business.