Fix minor plumbing and electrical issues.

Plus, from what I have seen, many of those cheaper three deckers have problems with asbestos, decks that aren’t up to code, electrical that needs to be redone etc.  

the power of networking can never be under estimatedShare your experiences?

Available on Amazon   Finally Origin Investments, a very high powered syndicator, has an excellent blog about syndications   I would read them all but this one is specifically about waterfallshttps://origininvestments.com/2017/12/28/what-are-private-equity-waterfalls-clawbacks-catch-up-clauses/?

The land use is residential duplex on the property assessor records meaning the property is legally grandfathered as a duplex as it has two separate utility records for gas and electric historically. 

I would not entertain it- far better things to get a return on investment.1- You should not entertain shelling out cash to reduce a tenant's electric bill, no pay-off there.2.

Should I insist that the sellers turn them on so I can do a final test of the plumbing, central air, electricity, etc?

I am an Electrical Contractor and starting my journey into buy and holds. 

That just shows the power of Berkshirehathway's SEO efforts. 

If you have something to buy it's worth it, but don't force yourself to buy something you normally wouldn't consider...With that said you can be little flexible seeing as you're hypothetical buying power is greater (by whatver you'd "lose" to taxes).