Partnership \ Doing work yourself?

[Tyler Huser]

Hello,

A longtime friend of mine and myself have talked over the years about partnering in real estate investing but have never pulled the trigger.  I live in Indiana and he now lives in Nashville; originally from Indiana...  We would like to partner in order to give ourselves more options (more cash, more leverage opportunity) than getting into real estate investing individually plus living in two different areas gives us opportunity to purchase in two different regions of the country and staying close to the properties we own.

What are some things that we should do to make this partnership a success? 

Early discussions have been to manage our own rentals, and have most repairs done by an outside contractor if needed (we both work 9-5 jobs and I own an insurance agency).  To be honest, we'd like to be "hands off" as im busy with my business and he is potentially out of state depending where we purchase the real estate.  I would love to get some opinions of those regarding the partnership and of those that are landlords that dont want to be hands on or shall I say "not handy".  Thank you for any feedback.