Partnering with Mom on her last home purchase

[Patrick McCandless]

So my mom is selling her home in the area I was born and raised in Southern California and moving to a more affordable (barely) area in Central California to retire in the coming months. She should be able to get enough equity out of her home sale to purchase with all cash. I have been figuring out a way to purchase a new primary residence where I just moved to along with a rental property of some sort whether it be two separate purchases or something with an in-law suite etc. I can't do a duplex and I refuse to rent out a room to house hack in that fashion due to my growing family and babies in the house so I've been thinking about other ways to get into the investing side without a whole second down payment over and above the down payment I will need for my primary.

Wanted to get thoughts and ideas on going in with my mom on her retirement home purchase (home that she will be retiring in, rather). After purchasing with cash she will only be living off her lousy 401k that she has contributed to over the years as well as social security so she won't really have a ton of extra money to live her life the way she might like to if she had some extra cash coming in regularly. Instead of sitting on the sidelines for who knows how long until I can get a large enough down payment for a rental home I was thinking about just contributing to her on a monthly basis for an ownership position on the home. That way I'm getting in now and I know I will have probably the best tenant anyone could ever ask for (she's a neat freak).

Thoughts or ideas on anything like this?