Check up on your tenant at least once a year to ensure they're upholding the lease and caring for the property.

Is this a fairly typical arrangement for partnerships?

If you are actually buying the property, a 5 or 10% deposit is fairly common practice. 

Would it be fair for FIL to be a 50% owner with the wife and I owning 50%?

@Mauricio Rezende - Sounds good, just wanted to ensure that you fully understand the costs associated with getting your license so you're not surprised once you get started.

Electricity bill is fairly high - each unit has window AC units (some units have 2).

Unrealistic expectations. 1-2 calls per 100 pieces of mail would be a good response for someone fairly new to direct mail marketing.

We will have a fair amount tied up in renovations when we are done, somewhere in the ball park or $65k, we only paid $35k for it though.

When you market a home with a particular amenity, you have a moral obligation to ensure that amenity is maintained. it doesn't matter if you told them the tub worked or not; they saw it and assumed it works so you should ensure the home matches what was presented.If you don't intend to maintain the tub, be sure to disclose that to future renters.

My involvement would become worthless.If the investor stays off the note but gets 6% + 50/50 of the remaining profits than it would be fair.