You did not mention the type of investment or how the split is handled on revenue or losses (33% to each member of the JV.  

If you need to have an empty building, then you should account for loss rent during the time of reno.

If I'm correct, of the two  I believe the attorney's opinion is better because the attorney and more importantly his E&O carrier, if he has one, would have liability for a covered loss you might suffer for relying on his opinion. 

We just realized that we need to do our part and minimize exposure.   

Buying now and selling in 4 years, you will probably have to take a loss on the duplex if that is your strategy.

If anyone has any advice to make this process easy with minimal risk, I would appreciate the info. 

Keep in mind you will turn this list every few months.If you're main focus is fielding the requests to minimize your involvement there are services that can handle that for far less. 

Or can we just distribute the profits and losses to our returns via a schedule E without the partnership returns?

Or can we just distribute the profits and losses to our returns via a schedule E without the partnership returns?

Make sure your deductible is affordable should you have a loss. 4.