I recommend you figure out what you want to do, then actually do it to see if you enjoy it, have some skills, etc.

What’s your exit strategy if the partnership doesn’t perform as expected?

What are tenants expecting in terms of updates?  

Either lower your expectations regarding 2% or be very patient when looking for deals.

I tried calculating value based on NOI and cap rate (see below) but I'm new to this and the value seems to come out lower than I would expect.

We are currently charging $1300/unit/month  and expecting to be charging the same this coming year.

Usually, by the second month, you are figuring out how to evict.Sometimes we have a specific unit that has been on the market a long time. 

I would just cap it generously to only catch abusers and figure the normal running costs in your rent. 

Specifically I am trying to figure out the best vehicle through which to conduct our REI.

A syndication was way overkill because there were only 5 capital partners so they customized an operating agreement with their attorney that outlined roles and responsibilities, distributions, membership interests, etc.And you don't have to have all this stuff figured out right now; it's very customary for us to assign the contract to whatever customized entity we end up forming.Just one caveat.