The last house I purchased, I called my agent, he inspected the roof (it's Texas, it hails!)

Does anyone besides me HATE tan roofs???  

It's a little nerve racking for me to give up control of those phone calls because if your VA doesn't do a good job you could potentially lose a deal from that lead that you spent money on.However, if I want to grow my business I'm learning that I need to be able to give up control so that I can scale. 

If a facility is 30 years old look for either large reserves or a lot of new construction with new roofs, good siding and good paving.Look for a history of special assessments and understand what that is all about.

Here is the list of items I use when evaluting the numbers on any 2-4 unit property:Taxes (included in PITI)Sewer and WaterTrashHeat/UtilitiesHOACap Ex and Ops (my personal minimum is $150/roof/month)Insurance (included in PITI)Mgmt Fee - as a % (general consensus here on BP is 10%. include it even if you think you are going to self manage)Vacancy- as a % (8% represents 1 vacant month/unit/year)

You need to have these in place before buying because there are going to be roofs to repair, Hvac to replace, a bad tenant, a prolonged vacancy etc

There is much to know and costs to setup everything can rack up.  

The way it is structured you have all of the experience and he has all of the control as the two smaller investors have no control, by that I mean your two votes don't outweigh his ownership- when is it time to sell, replace the roof, raise the rent, evict a tenant, etc. 

A friend and I have been racking our brains trying to figure this real estate game out.

I personally don't think I would invest in one again, unless the rents were through the roof.