Is a "rehab crew" the same thing as a general contractor?

General contractor has a strict meaning. It's the party that holds the prime contract with the owner, pulls the permits under its own license, and is on the hook for the whole job including the subs it hires. In most states the title is tied to a license with a dollar threshold, a test, and a bond, and the threshold and the rules vary state to state, so check yours before you print a business card.

"Rehab crew" isn't a defined term anywhere. Investors use it loosely for a labor team that shows up and does demo, paint, flooring, trim, whatever, usually working under someone else's contract or directly for the owner on unpermitted cosmetic work. Same guys can be excellent. They're just not carrying the same legal position.

Your investor probably wants both and hasn't separated them in his head yet.

So a rehab crew is basically an unlicensed GC doing the same job with more risk?

@plumb no, the difference is who signs. My team is four people and we work as a subcontract crew on other people's permits about half the time. Nobody's pretending to be a GC on those jobs, we just don't hold the prime contract, so we don't carry the schedule risk or the permit liability for the whole house.

The part @thatch didn't mention that bites people: if you're the crew, the owner is often paying you as a 1099 and assuming you have your own general liability and workers comp. Investors ask for a certificate of insurance more often than they used to. If you can't produce one you're competing on price only, and that's a bad place to be with labor as tight as it is.