Partnering with family who needs housing to buy MFH with 3.5% DP

[Sarah Lorenz]

I have a couple of family members who do not own their own home, and I was thinking about proposing to partner with them to buy a duplex and provide the 3.5% down payment. I was thinking that perhaps we could agree to buy a second duplex a year later, which they could move into, and then we would each own a duplex with very little down payment. Has anyone else done something similar to this? Do you have suggestions on how to make this work well or pitfalls to avoid?

[Don Konipol]

The 3.5% down payment is for owner occupied real estate, in which the 3.5% must come from the occupant, not from an investing partner.  With the amount of scrutiny these days as to catch mortgage fraud, any "workarounds" usually don't work.