How do we address realtor commission if the realtor is my partner?

[Tom Noyes]

OK, so a realtor friend and I are partnering up on a fix and hold. He brought this listed purchase to me and we decided to purchase it together. We are both putting in cash and we both bring useful rolls to the table. One of his rolls is being the buying realtor. Another would be leasing/advertising. One of my rolls would be to clean up and rehab and manage other workers.

In our first discussion, regarding our working relationship and our rolls on this deal I asked his how he intended to address his commission. He thought that since he was bringing me the possible deal anyway, he thought he would take his commission like he normally would, and that would be part of his 50% money in. (it's around $18,000 in commission).

I can see from his point of view that this may make sense, but I also highly value my time, and never seem to have enough of it. We both have hard everyday office etc costs.

Does anyone have any advice or maybe been in a similar situation? I'm sure there are several way to construct our working agreement.