I bought my condo from a developer who converted a triple decker, except he didn't buy any of the units. Our docs have identical wording except that the initial board ended when one unit sold.

I think it's clear you're getting screwed. Our condo is self managed and requires almost no work. Our HOA fees are all under $200 and covers master insurance, water and sewer, common electric, and maintenance. All bills are on autopay and I monitor them.

When maintenance needs to be done one of us volunteers to take the lead and we don't get paid for that. We might each do about 30 min of "work" per quarter which usually consists of changing light bulbs, ordering items on Amazon, phone calls/emails, and being there when the maintenance person gets there. It's certainly not something that should be compensated $1500/mo.