House Hack with a twist?

[Danny Luu]

Hi! I have a few questions regarding a HOUSE HACK idea... Sorry this might be a little long but i want to give as much detail as i can to get better feedback. Thanks!

The property of interest is in LA (near USC). It is a 4plex with two 2/1 and two 1/1. I currently live within 30 mins of the area and am pretty familiar with the properties around it as I've been interested in that area for a while. I have been analyzing this specific property for about a month now and the numbers look good but I've just been hesitant to jump into it myself because its slightly over my comfort zone in regards to price (i know i may be being too conservative but I'm trying my best to make my first LA property a good experience). My plan was to do a traditional house hack... live in the 1/1 unit and rent out the other 3 units.

Anyways, in comes my friend. He's been looking for a SFR to buy as a primary for a few months now. He isn't on this site and doesn't know much about investing but recently I talked to him about the idea of a duplex instead of a single family and he seemed intrigued. Long story short, an idea popped into my head this morning as I was driving into work listening to a BP podcast. Why not go into the 4plex together?!

I was thinking my friend and I can go into it together. Split the DP and basically treat the 4 plex as 2 connected duplexes. I'd be responsible for one 2/1 and one 1/1 and he's be responsible for the other half. When i say responsible i mean regards to management. So he can choose to live in either one and rent the other. We'd also split Mortgage, Ins, and Taxes and vacancy (resv) down the middle. Other expenses such maint, and capex would go into a pot and used as needed. Each unit is separately metered. 

Does anyone have any ideas, advice or experience on this? If this sounds like a dumb/bad idea, please feel free to say so but please provide a reason. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Also, what types of exit strategies would work well in this situation? I've been reading on BP about partnerships and I'm wondering if anyone has done anything similar to this and the type of exits you had? Thank you again!