Buying first investment with newbie partner

[Daniel Jodrey]

Hello BP community,

I have a question about financing a down payment. I am a newbie looking to buy my first property, specifically a multi family. I have a partner who has the same real estate dreams and we have a great relationship in our personal lives. My partner has much more financing ability then I do and we agreed that she would help finance our first property or first few to help our business get started.

My question is; If I find a multifamily that I want to purchase and she lends me the money for the downpayment, will I still be able to get a loan for the property? Say that I find a property for 250k and i get 50k from my partner and then get the loan under my name. I have read that it is difficult for banks to give a loan when the downpayment is borrowed and you could be committing loan fraud if you lie about where the downpayment money came from?

I also am unsure about the best way that my partner would be reimbursed for this. Or even when someone gets several people to go in. What is the best method to ensure they get that money back. I know if the property needs work you can rehab and then refinance. But what if the property does not need that much work?

Any thoughts and advice on this would be appreciated.