Investing as a group -- How to structure mortgage?

[David Famiglietti]

Hopefully this is going in the right place, and yes, I searched and found very little on the topic which I find strange, so I'm going to see if I can get more input.

I have a handful of employees (3-6 that are serious about it enough to follow through at the end of the day) that are constantly asking me questions about my real estate investment deals, how I started, etc.

None of them alone have the cash sitting around to risk on a down payment for a decent rental here in Las Vegas.  "House Hacking" a Multi Family doesn't work well here because of where they are situated.  

We sat down and started brain storming and if a few of them got together with $5K - $10K each and formed an LLC they would have enough to put down on a cash flowing four plex or 2 nice cash flowing SFH's in our area of the city. They could save the income inside the LLC and even re-contribute from personal savings yearly to continue to buy property. Their shares would be based on equity in assets held and cash, so they could buy in or re-buy in unevenly, or buy each other out down the road, etc.

The more I think about the situation their in, the more I want to help them facilitate an investment group. I can walk through most of the inner workings in my head, but the one thing I can't get figured out is how do 4, 5, or 6 people become responsible evenly on a mortgage? Even if the LLC is technically buying the house, they'll have to sign personally for the mortgage and from what I understand banks try to limit co-borrowers to 2 or so.

Does anyone have any experience setting up such a group?  I'd appreciate some input on the "who signs the mortgage" part as thats basically the only thing I can see as an obstacle.  I understand the importance of using a lawyer and accountant to help set up the actual structure, but before wasting time and money on that level, I'd like to get a better understanding of how they would share responsibility for the mortgage.

Thanks in advance for any input or feedback from your personal experiences!