Buying rental property with my father - How to structure?

[Michael Giuffre]

I'm in the process of buying the first of, hopefully, many rental properties and am financing it as a joint mortgage applicant with my father. As I understand, we can not apply for a mortgage in an LLC's name and after purchasing the property under our personal names it would violate the lender's due on sale clause if we were to transfer the property to an LLC that we owned. Therefore, it seems like an LLC is out. That said, I believe the easiest solution for us would be to form a general partnership (by default), file a 1065 return each year, and simply buy an umbrella insurance policy to guard against liability. However, is this the right approach in my situation?

Further, I know there are tenants in common, joint tenants with survivorship, etc. and am not sure how you "elect" those treatments separately from forming a partnership.  Can anyone shed some light on what direction(s) I should explore here?  

[Steve Vaughan]

I'd get some professional advice from a RE attorney and CPA. I am not one, but would explore the TIC election with % listed with a JV agreement. Keeps things pretty clean. Cover the Ds in your JV agreement - death, divorce, default, disinterest, drug use etc.

The most important thing is to have clear goals and expectations so Thanksgiving dinner never gets weird.  Far more important than some transaction is your relationship with your father @Michael Giuffre!