Invest myself or with my family?

[Saeed Sulaiman]

Hello all, 

After many hours listening, reading, and saving. I'm ready to make my first deal. 

I want to purchase a duplex that I've finally found where the numbers work. Here's the quandary:

My father will be retiring and will come into a end of contract bonus, they don't really have any other investments and he's talked many times about wanting to invest in a home with me... 

I can afford the down payment on the property if I do it myself, and I think it would be a good first property for me. If my father comes in, he could probably pay for it outright. 

So, should I just invest in it myself? Or should we partner together. If we partner what would that look like? If I put down 20% and he 80%, would we split the cash flow to those percentages? If we do that then I'm not really leveraging my money and am just using it as a more "traditional" investment. 

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks all!