Hey Will,
I know I am a few days late to this thread, but I live in a condo setting on the ground floor. Our HOA does not allow for charcoal grills, so a stick burner was obviously out of the question. The HOA does allow for propane grills, so I figured an electric smoker should be fine.
I noticed on the initial "break-in" smoke that my #2 produced a lot of smoke. Like others have noted, the smoke production was most "heavy" during from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours in. I was very nervous that somebody may complain. Nobody did, thankfully.
Since then, I have made 2 changes:
I now smoke on our building's roof in a semi hidden area. It is now barely noticeable to any of the neighboring residents. I feel a lot more comfortable with this location for my smokes.
Also, I have started the "foil boat" trick. This trick reduces combustion in the early minutes of the smoke, which I believe reduces smoke production. I may bring the smoker down to my 1st floor deck and try another smoke using this method.
Good luck on your journey.
JDW