Taking equity in exchange for doing all the work?

[John Semione]

Hi BPers. I'm the broker for a SoCal student property management company and one of my clients is a partnership between 2 investors, one of whom just decided to pull out because he doesn't think their 2 SFRs are cash flowing enough. The remaining partner held the majority of the equity (actual split unknown), but was a silent partner who did almost no work or decision making himself (nice, but super busy guy). 

I am new to investing, but super capable of doing everything the exiting-partner was doing (banking, financial decisions, taxes, running the LLC for the homes, and anything that requires any work or contact with another human being). That said, I don't know if this equated to several hours of work per week, or just several hours per month. I'm doing the management after all. I have almost no cash to contribute, but see an opportunity to get involved. Each SFR is worth about $500k and earns $1000/month after PITI (got to love student rentals). We are already getting $450/month of that as a management fee. My goal is to get more deeply involved in such a way that I'd ultimately get some cash to use toward down payments in outside-of-SoCal investment homes. And I'd like it to be a win/win for my partnerless client.

Perhaps it would be nice to drop the management fee and take on the ex-partner's work and get a percentage of the equity (5? 10?) in exchange. Perhaps I keep the same management fee and agree to take on the work in exchange for 2% equity per year with a cap at a certain percent (10?). Not sure I should focus on cash flow or equity (whatever helps me free up extra outside-SoCal-downpayment-money faster). Whatever portion of equity I get, I think I should put at least that much toward the home's expenses (excluding PITI?). I'd like to avoid offering cash of my own if possible.

Any ideas BP friends? Comments?