New Partnership of friends looking to get started!

[Dan Previti]

Good morning all,

My name is Dan and I've been lurking on and off of this site and listening to some of the podcasts for about a year so far.

A few close friends and myself started a General Partnership officially as an investment club and have been only in the stockmarket thus far.  Most of us live in the NYC suburbs.  My experience is in trading stocks and options, but we want to explore getting into real estate to start generating passive income.  We've done a lot of beginner homework and of course are at that point of analysis paralysis.

My issue is that I feel we need to learn a lot while the other guys are in 'let's just pick one and do it' mode, while doing almost no homework.  Maybe I am over-analyzing but there needs to be a middle ground.  

Going to list a few of our metrics and what honestly I expect the group being able to do.  

1.  I know we are not as passionate or committed as others, and won't get the best deal possible.  We all have full-time jobs, families, or just lack of dedication to really dig deep and find a good deal.  I'm ok with this because I know the others will not change, but I also do not want to do nothing just because we won't get an amazing deal.

2.  Our plan is to get into buy and hold rental properties.

3.  The group is choosing to focus in the Plano, TX surrounding area, or closer to home near Jersey City, NJ.  Plano was chosen not just because it is on all the websites as a hot area, but because a few of us also have work/friends ties in that area and we could probably get there more often.  My take and from what I read on the Dallas forum is that it is a very competitive area, so I don't expect us to 'find the deal' if we are not boots on the ground.

4. We won't be going door-to-door, doing direct mail, driving for dollars, etc.  I love it all and listen about it and I completely understand the benefits of it.  But I know our guys are quite frankly, too lazy or not interested enough to do this.  

5.  Financially, we have about 40k pooled in our fund now, and inject about 15k each year (before any gains/losses).  There is a likely possibility that once we were really ready to buy, we could inject another 20k or so as a one-time down payment boost.

I try to get my friends on this site, to listen to the podcasts, read, learn, etc.  I know I am benefiting from the shared knowledge, but I'm having trouble getting the rest on board.  Most are apprehensive because they think there has to be a catch or we have to buy something.  I know this isn't the case as I've spent a lot of time, but this is my predicament.  I don't want to be the one guy doing all the homework (and also I have a family and young child and I physically can't do this myself on top of everything else).  So some of my questions are:

a) How do I get others on board to help or pitch in their fair share (triple rhyme lol)?

b) Is is realistic for an LLC to be able to put less than 20% down on a property (conventionally). All 5 of us have excellent credit and are employed to back this. I don't expect us to pursue creative means because I already have issues with guys doing a simple task, let alone anyone taking initiative to find ways to finance with less $ up front.

c) Does going turnkey make sense for a group like us who are honestly unwilling to spend a lot of time doing this?  I always do my DD and will end up fact-checking everything if we deal with a turnkey, but I wonder if this would be easier for our group to handle a lot of the responsibilities that comes with owning an out-of-state rental property.

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Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any reading.  I welcome any and all feedback- good or bad is appreciated.

Thanks.