They're paid by the job and if their performance ever decreases (which can happen - they're great for a time and eventually for whatever reason their quality, timeliness, etc declines) then it's easier to phase them out & replace them with a different crew. 

Discuss COC return, run a financial analysis for him and a performance chart showing the ROR after multiple properties have been acquired and cashed-out... good luck.

You haven't even closed yet so how can you assess its future performance as profitable or not.

I think this stuff needs to be redesigned or pulled from the market if this is how it is (not) performing.

Give it a try for two consecutive projects and see how you perform by project 3..... you will be surprised how such a small tweak to your budget can impact the overall project performance. 

In our market, you can self manage, with all the associated work, and out perform the LTR income.  

For example, you can show the services you performed and the approximate number of hours spent by using an appointment book, calendar, or narrative summary.Doesn’t even need to be contemporaneous logs. 

If there's a hole, it may be a red flag.b) sensitivity analysis: I examine all the assumptions, and make sure I can live with the worst case scenarios.c) "Stall and see": if they are getting money over multiple years, and there is no penalty for investing later, I would usually wait so I get some real performance data, versus having to look at theoretical pro forma information.d) Recession stress test: I will not invest in anything, until I subject it to recession level stress and see if I can live with the result.

Have you performed an amortization analysis to see when your net earnings after depreciation starts to become positive?

Driven by favorable interest rates and stock market performance, debt issuance has been the main capital driver.