Investing with a partner and making it a business

[Thomas Bullock]

My friend and I purchased a 3 family home about 2 years ago. We started out by watching bigger pockets youtube videos and dove right in. I see tons of success stories and I’m trying to get myself in that position as well one day.

I can't seem to wrap my head around how to make a "business" out of the real estate avenue I've chosen. I want to buy multi family properties with 30 year fixed rate loans. The issue I'm noticing is that doing this strategy with a partner who isn't a spouse is foreign to most people. Every time i mention my investment strategy to other investors, they don't understand why I'm working with a partner. In addition, loans have been difficult to process while working with a partner. We're both veterans and we're trying to start out by using VA loans and FHA loans to avoid the massive down payments, but there are restrictions with those loans. So now my partner and i are both on the loan but only collecting 50 percent of the income. So now our debt to income is negative which makes purchasing the next property difficult.

So here’s my dilemma… I can’t afford 20 percent down to go conventional and avoid all the owner occupancy restrictions and whatnot. So the alternative is working with a partner to be able to increase my loan approval, split the risk, and obviously help with management. Seems like a great deal. So how do I make working with a partner a business and become one unit instead of 2 individuals?

This is long winded and I guess I don’t have a clear question. Im looking for any insight or any mentorship in how I can organize this strategy because as it stands, I can’t process how this actually works in terms of scaling.