If you want to scale your business excel is just not a feasible long term option especially when it comes to follow up appointments, diligent note taking, recording phone calls, tracking deal stages etc.  

What's the best structure for such a partnership: liability, taxes, avoiding commingling with other deals, expense tracking, etc.

I will have my number on the sign so it wouldn't be hard for them to track down who's causing the mischief. 

I also spend a lot of time tracking down people who are hard to find around here, so I might be able to come up with something.

If that business is rehabs & or tracking down sellers it could be used to fund another deal or develop a much more robust marketing plan.

Now, I'm exhausted posting to wholesalers, nothing personal, but most have attitude, personality and/or sociopathic trait disorders, unwilling to learn, self centered, self absorbed, lazy, looking for a fast buck having the audacity of calling themselves real estate investors or even business people when they follow the guru track of using a sale contract, either that or, probably like yourself Andrea, you or they just got caught up in something you or they aren't really aware of.

Your property's market is defined by the surrounding RR tracks. 

Your thinking on the right track imo...

The minute it ceases to be self supporting and making your goal it's a failure until you get it back on track.  

They're not going to show up to your project, hop out of a Cadillac dressed in track suits with Louisville sluggersUnless its a friend or relative who doesn't know any better, most private/hard money lenders are going to require some due diligence on the project before funding it, especially if you're new.