Invest with a partner (my brother) or go solo?

[Shamim Toufighian]

Alright, so my brother and I both live in Los Angeles and we're both looking to get into REI. We both want to get a 2-4plex to owner occupy, but it's more difficult to finance if we go solo (but not impossible). If we were to do it together, we'd want to owner occupy a 4plex... meaning I would take one unit, he would take another, and we'd rent out the remaining two. Here's a list of pros/cons I came up with... how good/bad of an idea is this? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

PROS

• have a better chance of purchasing a property
• gives us more options of what to purchase at a higher price point
• can share landlording responsibilities
• potentially putting in less of a downpayment, freeing up cash for another investment
• other stuff I'm sure I'm missing

CONS

• only two of the units would be rented out
• not getting the max rent from the unit the other brother is living in
• other stuff I'm sure I'm missing