Hello and welcome to this site Chad! 

You draw from the escrow account as you complete phases of work. (5K after exterior is complete, 5K after Rough Electrical and Plumbing, 5K after flooring, cabinets, etc. 10K at completion) This protects you and the lender from a contractor taking off with your cash and not even hammering a nail at the job site.

But as a former employee of VRBO (when the original founders owned the company and I was part of the team that helped build the site to what it is today) I obviously am proud that "VRBO" has become a noun as well as a verb in this industry. :-)We purchased our 1st STR in Summit County, CO in 2012 and since then have bought a new STR property every 2 years since, with the exception of 2017 when we bought a home in the city in VA where our alma mater is located.

If/when a market downturn causes thousands of wanna-be-flippers to lose big time and I tend to think flipping will go out of vogue.

They made a bunch of updates to the site that have made it terrible.

You could also send him a letter of recommendation, and leave positive reviews on internet sites.

Literally all you have to lose is what you spend on marketing. 

But you'd likely have to overcome the objection of why they should let you in on the equity site and not just let you live onsite and perform those functions as a job...Time is money... and if you don't have money you should have the time.

Ask friends, local groups, builders, online forums, meetups, investor groups, visit flip job sites, etc.   

ugh long day and was writing on mobile site