Having said that its important to have a very clear statement of work and what is expected when to mitigate the risk to you. 

A lot of work and you wont know what the floors will look like when done .

Skip tracing does work and it costs around $9.00 per house but I use skip tracing only as a last resort, and that still doesn't guarantee you're going to talk to the property owner. 

I was one of the larger court house steps buyers in our market for years.. and there were folks that would come to the sale and if we bid they bid.. they knew we did our due diligence on title etc.. so they could just short cut it.one particular one was this Dentist wife.. it would irk me.. so I run title on this one.. then do my usual 6 am drive by before the sale to make sure its still standing.. and lo and behold  full of bikers and pit bulls and etc etc..

The city has stopped the work and I have been stuck like this for about 6 months.

This investment style requires more day-to-day involvement and more legwork building a team etc, but gives you greater control and, if done very well (ie your agent finds you a good deal, your contractor does a great job in a timely manner and no weird surprises turn up etc) you can end up with higher returns than turnkey because you buy properties that need work and then 'force appreciation' by doing a rehab that results in a finished product that is worth more on the market than the sum of what you put into it.

I don't know how common that is but even 50% split seems pretty generous if you're doing the work and the agent is just processing paperwork for you.

He is basically teaching you how the formulas work and how commercial properties are valued: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/73755-18-...And in this one, he provides his own downloadable spreadsheet to analyze deals like yours: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/496...There are lots of resources on Bigger Pockets and beyond which will continue your education and give you tools to do the analysis.

I was wondering in your experience, how does the FHA loan process work and what are the criteria for approval typically involved?

I tried to add the image but it didnt let me, so I copied and pasted the text below:The Mortgagee may use Commission Income as Effective Income if the Borrowerearned the income for at least one year in the same or similar line of work and it isreasonably likely to continue.The Mortgagee must calculate Effective Income for commission by using the lesserof (a) the average net Commission Income earned over the previous two years, or thelength of time Commission Income has been earned if less than two years; or (b) theaverage net Commission Income earned over the previous one year.