Family and friends as investors/partners/financiers?

[Marco Harris II]

Hello,
I am a fairly new investor in Baltimore MD using a cash buy and hold strategy for residential properties. My business partner/mentor and I basically purchase houses between $10-20 thousand fix them up ourselves with the help of a small crew of laborers and then rent them out for between $800-1000/month. The turnaround time for each property is about 4-6 weeks from close to signing the rental contract. My partner has been doing this for over 10 years and is able to buy more than a house per month with or without my help. I on the other hand have only been able to purchase 1 house with his help basically going 1/2 with him on all aspects of the deal from start to finish.

I have recently had a lot of family and friends want to partner/invest/get involved in this strategy. I know the extra cash will definitely help move the ball along faster even if I’m taking in even less of the profit for myself but I have no clue as to how to structure a partnership like this.

Is this type of partnership a good/bad idea in this scenario? Can you recommend any reference material that may help me out? Are there any other finance solutions that you know of that I should look into that would complement this strategy?

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Marco.