Starting LLC with others, Help!

[Leonard Ng]

I'm wondering if anyone more experienced (specifically with California) could help me out. A few friends and I have recently been talking about investing in Real Estate. We've all been working for a few years and have the liquid capitol for downpayments. One of my friends suggested that if we form an LLC and pool our resources, we could buy more property, lower individual risk and get better returns. The idea is that we each put in $50-100k (we haven't reached an exact decision as to what the buy-in will be) and split profits evenly.

Here's where it gets fuzzy for me. We all have different credit scores and one of my friends has a pretty low one (mainly due to personal stupidity). Before this idea, she was planning to have her parents, who have great credit, cosign the loan for her to buy an investment rental home. On the other hand, a couple of us have pretty phenomenal credit and have prequalified for mortgages, but because of this idea, have been holding off on making bids on property.

As a newly formed LLC, would banks scrutinize all our credit histories?

Another option is for the ones of us with more liquid assets and better credit to put in more and own a bigger piece of the LLC and be the "senior" partners, ie make all the decisions. In this case, would banks be more inclined to ignore the fact that an investor doesn't have great credit? Would it be better to just ditch the one with the bad credit even though she can bring a significant investment to the table?

I'm completely new to the idea of LLC's and loans of that nature, so any advice would be great.