Why partners?

[Derek Lamonde]

I've heard and read a lot about folks having "partners". Myself, I've considered it with friends in the past in order to double what I can buy. However, doubling what you can buy (as well as doubling maintenance costs...) while splitting the profits doesn't make any more sense to me than sticking with what I can afford and taking it all. 

Is there something I'm missing? At the moment I'm looking to add a multi-family unit to our portfolio of single units in NJ. From there I am interested in building our holdings beyond that so I'm trying to understand the pros/cons of partnering.