Glossing over that difference injects a lot of misunderstanding and silliness in the process.A flip renovation focuses on getting high-end finishes and touches into a project.

I would recommend taking the money as a gift and offering them a % of the rents as part of their injection of money.

A way to overcome the obstacle of buying a “bubbly” asset is to inject value add such as renovations or adding bedrooms and/or exercising a more profitable rental strategy such as MTR for your units. 

Cash-flow and California don't really go hand-in-hand, but you could consider other strategies or figure out an amount of cash you're comfortable injecting into a rental property to hold it.

A lot of multifamily properties are being offered at higher prices...this one despite its capex needs meets my unit amt/price range... essentially after injecting the necessary capital, proper management and upgrades the building should bring the property value up 10-20%.... 

And good chance that more units will start to sell and fresh blood will be injected into the HOA.

Because she has other construction projects (she's a small time RE developer with a full construction team), her funds are tied up and her personal cash injection is have "seasoning" issues.  

I have no doubt that if I proposed opening a "safe injection site" to the left of you and a 300 unit, 6 story apartment building to the right of you, that you'd be at the meetings screaming NIMBY!

On the passive side, it's going to take longer, but if you have enough capital to inject into the investment you can reduce the timeline significantly. 

Who injects additional funds if maintenance or capex is required?