The reason I said that is because I already have some partners and a hard money lender line up that is willing to do some projects with me (on flips) once I can show them a great deal.  

Perhaps $2K or less if the contractor doesn't have to rip open walls or get into any tight spaces.So, if this were my project in a comparable area, this is what I'd budget:- $4K to replace furnace/condenser- $4K to replace all plumbing- $2K to replace all ductwork- Whatever the cost is to fix/replace the damaged sheetrock needed to get to the plumbing/ducts.If the Scope of Work is less, the cost should be as well...

If you want to offer your services in exchange for training or the opportunity to participate in a project you'll want to post in the Marketplace.

@Alex Tobias  for multi-family, I would renegotiate the offer if during due diligence something came up massively unexpected by all parties.

Using a personal loan could serve as a good tool to bridge into your first project.

As I said, I can go pretty far with some massively complex spreadsheets but I'm still fundamentally uncertain of the soundness of some of my analysis, and within the context of Excel it's pretty hard to do across a range of inputs.

With separate entities that JV together on projects of mutual interest, if you like a property that your partners don't, you can always buy it yourself under your entity or with just one of your partners that also had interest.

Make sure you can get someone to oversee the project if you can't.  

I estimate the project will cost $75,000-$100,000.  

My company uses a 2% fee. 15% is massive, but could be fair depending on how you structure the rest of the deal.