Buying section 8 duplex with son, how to structure the purchase

[Chris Iley]

Me and my son are going 50/50 on our first rental, duplex, section 8 home.  We are paying cash and will put a new roof on and will want to refinance right away.  My question is about how we should initially purchase the house in order to make a refinance the easiest.

my side-- I'm paying with a HELOC on a home i own 100%, 7x the amount I'm using for the purchase, i have no W2 work history for the past 4 years, but in january i closed on a fix and flip and made around 70k, made about 20k in realized gains in the market this year so far, but i don't have consistent income.

my son-- he is 19 and this was his first year actually paying taxes.  he prolly claimed 30-40k last year, but has a business that will make well over 6 figures this year.

So I'm concerned with neither of us having a big employment history refinancing might be an issue. The house is currently rented for a total of 1700$ a month and has several years of history as a rental. Im also concerned about buying the home in my name, and having the potential for something happening and my own personal home at risk. My son doesn't own anything, so maybe his name would be a better option? (he lives with his mom, not at my house) Eventually i want to put the home into the name of an LLC, but i don't want to make refinance difficult or be put in a position where we have to wait an extended amount of time but i need to keep my home protected. Maybe it would just be better to buy it in the LLC, and even if there is a few more hoops to jump through the combination of both our incomes might make it easier in the long run?