Advice on purchasing half a house.

[Nic West]

it’s time for my sister to buy a house it’s 420k she can’t qualify because of down payment. I have cash I need to invest. How would you go about doing this? My thoughts are I put down 150k to buy half ownership wish buys me a instant 60k in equity. Anything after purchase price of 420 we split. My sister would make the payments/ repairs and taxes. Thoughts thanks 

[Jim K.]

Nic, if your sister doesn't have either the money or the credit to buy a $420K house you're not doing her any favors by buying into this primary residence. You may just be setting her up for lifelong personal finance failure.

By way of reference, I live in Allegheny County, where the media home price is $192K. I moved from a condo with tennis courts and a pool worth about that to a rundown over-under duplex I bought for $46K. After personally working on the place for quite a bit, I moved in downstairs and rented out the upstairs for $850/month.

It's turned out to have been a very wise financial decision.

I know you want your sister to have "a nice house." Everyone wants one. And thus the price for it has gone up very steeply indeed in the past few decades, driven much more by emotion than reason. When it comes to primary residences, don't do what everyone else is doing. Everyone else is broke.