Partnership, need your input

[Ben Gino]

Hi folks.  I'm contemplating on partnering up with someone to setup and operate a care facility.  I would just like to get your thoughts on what's fair in this partnership scenario.  I have the house, partner has the skills and certificates in setting up and operating a facility.  So before we draft the agreements and head down to a lawyer, I'd like to run it by experienced folks in this forum.

My take is that partner provides the sweat equity, and I provide the real estate; ie, free use of the house as a facility, but ownership and major maintenance remains mine.  Or better yet, for the sake of corp's expense scheduling, partner gets a certain salary and I get an equal amount in rent.  And any remaining net is split 50/50.  Fair so far? 

Partner has not expressed any interest in owning a piece of my real estate, and I would not want it either.  Certainly, partner can do all this alone-- rent a house, and run it.  But partner does not have the financial capacity to commit to a lease especially as rents are being paid (with likely no tenants) while waiting for state licensing which can take 9 mos to a year.  Nor would it be easy to find a landlord that would be willing to have their house be used as a care facility.

So now, what about the setup?  I would probably need to add 1 more room in the house (interior, no sqft add), add/change doors, bathrooms, ramps, handle bars, etc. that I think can easily run me 10K or so.  Licensing setup fee can go about 3K if partner does the paper work instead of hiring "consultants".  Also, applying entity needs to show an operational fund in its bank account of about 25K.  The 25K, I can provide with the notion that it would be returned to me as soon as business is operational.  For the rest of the expenses, what's the best and fair way of delegating setup expense.  I know partner does not have much financially, but I think I would want partner to commit some responsibility aside from paperwork.

Thanks for reading.  Any input or concerns you provide is greatly appreciated.