Advice on partnering -- a deal with friends (fun fact pattern)

[Jefferson Smith]

A few friends have talked with me about going in on real estate deals together. Each of us have done real estate investing before, but not a ton of it. We're all "post-newbies" (3+ deals each, never together). Each is a neat person who I like very much, and I do hope to do additional deals with them (and presumably others) down the line. We have not discussed terms or structure among us yet.

I have now found a deal. I've negotiated it. I've arranged financing. I suspect that I will do the majority of the work/high-level management after the deal is complete.  

My friends would prefer (and probably expect) to be general partners and divide everything as general partners (rather than being limited partners or more partial owners). 

I can probably get the project financed without any other general partners (and without any particular investor involved -- I have more initial investor/partner interest than I probably need.) (Deal needs 160-270k cash, depending on whether we add an additional unit. I can get 100k-140k pretty handily and separately from us, and I could fund much of it myself beyond that. 

It would be nice to share costs, and I want to get in the habit of including others in deals, so that I can learn more methods for doing that well, and so I start a deal flow.  And my relationships matter a lot more to me than the benefits of any one transaction. It's important to me that no one feels burned.

 At the same time, I'm a bit concerned that if we set a precedent of splitting deals as GPs (with equity based only on financial consideration but no consideration for putting the deal together), then that would not be the proper incentive for me (or someone else) to do the principal work of finding, negotiating, and structuring the deals.

What is a fair and smart way to proceed? What are some good options that will build trust and collaboration over time?