Operating expenses look at the regular and ongoing costs incurred by a property on a monthly or yearly basis.

However, in California, that can still be really expensive. 

Others focus on ADU builds or house hacking (like renting part of a primary home) since you can still deduct depreciation and expenses proportionally while living there.The reality is, in high-cost markets like this, appreciation and tax planning usually drive returns more than raw cash flow.

Those may have similar docs where each side agrees to pay for half the roof when needed or siding, but that gets association shared expenses down to very little, maybe a small shared insurance policy for the full roof as you aren't going to replace half a roof.Small condo associations (2-units) also may lead to more frustrations if there is a dispute on how to maintain something and who to turn to if one side isn't paying or keeping things looking nice. 

That is in effect what you are doing when you allocate $0 for PM.Your maintenance/cap ex is far too low for 2 units (~4x low) if trying t allocate sustaining costs.  

It matched the criteria for a low-risk, fast-turn opportunity where profit comes from timing and market positioning rather than renovations.How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

So Doorvest is getting everything that produces a high return and you get the aspects of real estate investing that have low a return. 

(Your wife thinks of this as low risk because you aren't borrowing.

People get too carried away with living completely for free, but literally cutting your living expenses down at all is still progress. 

This structure created a low-risk path to a high-profit outcome once the renovation was complete.How did you add value to the deal?