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.

I am in the process of purchasing a 3 family home that is going to need about 30k in repairs.  

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

I Am going to need to open up first floor bathroom sheetrocked ceiling to gain access to the pipes.I am sure this will be very tight and will be a major PITA.Anyone have any experience in this job?

Truth be told, friends and family members don't like it when I walk through their projects of doing these things as my I have a concerning tone of the amount of money they spent and whether they 'truly' recover or if it simply some offshoot to ego.

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. 

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

Use a lower roofline like 4/12 (high roofs mean more expense).

Roof-how does the roof look?