Understanding equity money partnerships

[Alec Newman]

Hello BP! 

I've come to the forums as it has proven to be such a valuable resource to throw out ideas, questions, or seeking opinions on anything I've ever been curious of regarding REI.

I'll get to my question shortly, but first a little context. I currently own one investment property and my primary residence in which I'm house hacking. My partner and I are under contract for what will be my third investment property now. I'm very interested in the MF space and am currently reading vol 1 of the Multifamily Millionaire as well as soaking up as much as I can from podcasts such as the Multifamily Mentors. 

To my understanding, after I have tax reports on the properties, I will be able to offset DTI with 75% of the income produced from each respective property. This is great, but I'm at a point where I'm looking to try to bring in other people's money to grow my portfolio. My partner and I are exploring the concept of stealing the idea of raising capital for syndications and such and using it for our smaller scale residential investments, gaining some experience in how that works, what it looks like to raise capital, and just adding to our experience and track record.

Now, while offsetting DTI is great, there comes a point in which it just makes sense to use other people's money and capabilities they have in methods such as equity money partnerships. Reading the Multifamily Millionaire, Brandon talks about doing this with a triplex and someone from his church. They brought the DP, closing costs, etc in exchange for him doing all of the work with a 50/50 split.

My question is, if entering in an equity money partnership, how does it work in terms of lending and ownership of the property? Liability?

For example,

If Bob and I agree to a similar partnership as mentioned in Brandon's example, Bob applies for the loan solely, is there a way in which we can both hold liability for the debt? Or, would Bob have to hold liability himself. Furthermore, if we agree to a 50/50 split, we agree in that during good or bad, as well as if we decide to offload the property, but how could I give Bob security in that if we made $0 and the mortgage had to be paid, that he wouldn't be hung out to dry and foot the bill himself, aside from my word? Something in the partnership agreement?

Finally, in situations like this, where Bob is taking the loan solely, is a common selling point to Bob the ability to do the same thing as I mentioned before with taxes in order to offset his DTI based upon the income the property produces?

Hopefully my thoughts to "paper" are making sense to you all, and thanks in advance for any feedback.

-Alec