If each partner contributes cash but only one partner contributes labor or expertise, then I recommend you split the cash flow and equity based on the percentage of ownership at the time of purchase, and then pay yourself separately for your labor. 

The flat fee for utilities, is that due to not being separately metered?

I had all of the same emotions you have when I first got started.

I’m crafting an offer that gets their emotions out of the way.

Running a rental property under a separate legal entity can add a thousands to compliance costs.

As humans we tend to make decisions more on emotions first, rather than on facts and figures.

We set up a separate construction LLC for the purposes of separating the two businesses. 

So I have this investor wanting to buy a group of houses but can’t buy separate.

The long answer to this is that I've recently put together a class on which banks are best for landlords, as well as the separation of accounts for landlords and I'm currently working on ACH set up and how to incentivize this for tenants. 

Though in theory, they are all the same, they all have slight differences that separate them from each other.