Most of all,  be sure to establish the "what ifs" should all not go well, like vacancies,  additional expenses, costs, and losses, disagreements among the partners, wishes to sell or liquidate when the other party does not, family succession, etc.Everybody gets along great when times are great and it's a brand new venture.Plan for worse case scenarios to both party's satisfaction before anything happens. 

When looking at a deal, is it possible for me to request the receipts of all recent repairs / upgrades to utilities & CapEx items? 

Small items may not.  

@John Pflederer, just a thought and I know this goes against why you have a property manager to do these things, but can you set up a contractor/worker to do some of these smaller, high-expense items like the salt, instead of letting the PM coordinate?

But they probably will require at some point an itemized rehab budget. 

Make sure each part of the job is itemized also try to separate out labor and materials if possible. 

I want her to be able to claim any deductions and losses at the end of the year.

I'm also a bit of a sustainability nut anyway.I'm also doing the other usual items, new laminate and tile flooring, bathroom renovation, kitchen updating and exterior maintenance.

I learned from BiggerPockets which rehab items were worthwhile and the expected costs. 

I scheduled another home inspection to make sure all items identified in the first was taken cared of as listed in the scope of work.