Newbie from Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana

[Andrew Banker]

Hey all!  I've been reading a lot of the information on the site over the last few weeks, and figured that it was time to join.  My brother-in-law and I recently started talking about investing in some rental properties together.  There is a VERY short list of people with whom I would enter into this type of endeavor, and he's one of those people.  At present, we're trying to figure out the details of how our partnership should work.  We have similar goals, to invest money into property, with all profits being reinvested into additional assets. Neither of us have any intention of pulling income from the assets at this point.  From a team standpoint, he has a finance background and time to devote to researching potential acquisitions, managing the properties, but has less expendable income to commit.  I have much more flexibility in what I could contribute in capital, but I spend a considerable amount of time running my non-real estate-related business.  Being that we want to leave keep our investment growing, we're having a hard time figuring out how to reconcile the differences in capital contributions.  Were we to take an income stream, we could easily figure out a split, but we're not planning on taking any income.  I figure that his "management" will probably exceed my time spent keeping the Quickbooks up to date, but he is still concerned that giving credit to the management as a capital contribution will take too long in catching up that I'd be better off getting a return elsewhere.  He feels as though I could do any of what we talk about without him, but I don't think I'd have the time.  Anyone have any experience with how to arrange this relationship to be mutually beneficial, as I believe the partnership would be?  I really appreciate the vast amount of information on the site, and I look forward to continue furthering my education with all of you!