my partner in a flip just disappeared

Hello,
thanks in advance for any help/advice.
Almost 9 months ago my brother introduced me to a carpenter/handyman thats had already built 3 houses, and he was looking for someone to close a deal he found. It was a house that appraised at $175,000.00 that I agreed to buy for $160.000.00, AFTER that I,my brother and this carpenter reached an agreement where I was the one to put the money in, and the 2 of them had to renovate the house. At the end of the renovation the house would have appraised at around $230,000.00 (it's an estimate based on the values of surrounding area).
My out of pocket expenses would have been $15/20K for the material needed for the renovation, plus I had to pay for the mortgage until the house would have been sold. We reached an agreement where the profit after all the expenses would have to be split in a 40/40/20%, where I was the one to get the 20%, and both my brother and this third guy would get 40% each.
They estimated that it would have taken 45/60 days to complete the job. It was mid August 2006 when we reached this agreement with a HANDSHAKE. To make a long story short, it was October 22 when I was asked $7,000.00 to buy new windows and doors, which they installed, but since then nothing else has been done, the interior has been stripped down, and the house looks terrible. I've been trying to reach this carpenter in any way without any luck, and my brother tells me that he cannot do his job (tiles, bathrooms) if the other guy does not do his job first. I tried to hire a different contractor also, but 4 of them refused to even give me an estimate after looking at the house,
so, right now I'm holding a piece of almost worthless property, when in the first place I bought something under 15k of appraised value, and the worst thing is that I've been paying an interest only mortgage for the past 8 months (I thought that the house would sell in 3 or 4 months).
What can I do? Is a VERBAL agreement good enough to sue this guy?
Thanks again for any advice.

Leo

lfibonacci@yahoo.com

[able1]

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against them (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to their behavior...

WLD lawyers could probably help collect if need be; email them as well.