These are the guys who went to a seminar last weekend and are all pumped up to pull the trigger on something.

In the event that an internal wire fails in a device and energizes the chassis with 110V, the ground wire will dump the current to ground, hopefully tripping the circuit breaker.Surges are an over voltage condition that is normally triggered by lighting strikes or other utility-related events.  

I'm really ready to do this but I haven't been able to pull the trigger yet.

It is good to find that kind of stuff before pulling the trigger on something. 

Most times 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing, so partnerships are a great way to grow and launch.I'd analyse what you are both bringing to the table, put it into a joint venture agreement (50/50, 70/30, whatever seems appropriate), and before you start a new LLC, do a joint venture one-off to see how you work together, and then after that if all goes good, think to partner long term. 

Could we get one in partnership with family members?  

I am really close to pulling the trigger on a duplex that I have analyzed in the below report, but I am still not sure. 

Yes, I would want to know about that.Start by asking the policy for what situations trigger an update to you the landlord.  

In the past on a different property I've called the lender and confirmed it is okay to do this in order to not have a due on sale clause prior to quit claim deeding it into an LLC.I've heard sometimes the lender will say you must refinance into your LLC in order to quit claim deed it to not trigger the due on sale clause.

The purpose of my entity is to club together several investors and make a singular, passive investment in a commercial real estate fund (the fund is organized as a Limited Partnership).