question about taxes for 3 people owning a duplex

[Jacob Straussen]

my two business partners and I just closed on a duplex.  the plan is to house-hack.  two of us will be living there as a primary residence but the third person will not be there.  however all three of us are on the title and will be responsible for the payments.

we were advised that the best way to debt service the monthly payments is to only have one of us make consistent payments from their own individual account.  that way, the debt will be covered by one person which gives more buying power to the other two as we continue to buy and invest in more real estate projects.  we will also be making a separate account to receive rent and use that for any business related rental expenses

-how would this work from a tax / tax deduction perspective?  will we all be able to deduct since we are all on the title?  

-also, I read that in order to use rental income to pay our mortgage, we would have to write a check payable to yourself then make the mortgage payment from that account.  I came across a similar post from 3 years ago but wanted to find out if this is still true now?

Thanks in advance.

[Bill B.]

Are 2 of you living together and there’s one renter or are there really no renters? Are your fairly compensating the non-occupant? You should each be paying fair market rent in to a shared bank account so the 3rd partner gets his return on the rent paid. You’d still be saving 1/3rd or 2/3rd on your rent but you wouldn’t be hosing the 3rd guy/gal. It doesn’t matter who actually makes the mortgage payment, just whose name is on it. I “think” you’re going to be prevented from homesteading the property even if you’re owner occupants unless you’ve got no real renters only 2/3rd of the partners. If that’s the case you might be able to. But you should each be paying 1/3rd of fair rent to the third guy. These are truly things that should have been worked out before closing but get it all written down and compensate the third guy.