Investing with Partners

[David Vaitenas]

Hello All,

This is my first post on this forum although I have been listening to bigger pockets for years. I wanted to ask your thoughts on investing in real-estate with others, more specifically family. I am currently looking to buy a 2-4 unit building in Fort Lauderdale area. I make about 120k a year and will be bringing my girlfriend in who will be paying me rent in this home as I plan on living in one of the units and renting out the other/others (she will have no ownership and understands this she's not what my question is about.). My parents have an extra 200k sitting around that they said they would want to go 50/50 on the property with me. I figured its a win win, they get to invest into some real-estate and grow their retirement as well as it will lighten my investment and potentially allow me to get into a better property that would cash flow/appreciate better.

Does anyone have personal experiences or opinions on this? I have the means to buy the property myself but I worry about my parents retirement and would hope we can rinse and repeat this process a few times and help them get some extra money for their retirement. I plan to do the BRRRR method (They are in their early 50's so they have about 15 years or so before we would want to sell or I buy them out of their properties for retirement) .

Thank you in advance for any advice! 

[Jonathan Greene]

Everything about this is a disaster. Do not involve family in your first investment and do not even consider building in Fort Lauderdale. Do you know how much it would cost to find land and build a 2-4 family there?

If you don't have experience, you don't want to take your family's money and put it at risk. Do something small on your own first, figure out what you are doing, and bring them in later when there are metrics to prove your concept.

Also, side note on this - "will be bringing my girlfriend in who will be paying me rent in this home as I plan on living in one of the units and renting out the other/others (she will have no ownership and understands this she's not what my question is about.)" - this will ruin that relationship in seconds. You are making your girlfriend a renter and not a co-inhabitant, it will end badly.