House Hacking partner 50/50

[John M.]

I was just wondering if anyone had ever considered doing a house hack with a partner 50/50 where you would buy a duplex and each live in one side, with the intention of eventually moving out and renting out one or both sides when ready?  It seems like this might be a good way for two people to buy something and share the risk, but there also might be drawbacks to this type of arrangement that I am not thinking about, and would like to hear opinions on this.

I had thought about doing something like this in the Sacramento area where I live, due to the costs of buying one alone - I just don't want to take on that much debt right now.  But I know there's always drawbacks with bringing a partner in.  Thoughts?

[Jeremy Brown]

It could work. One most important part would be talking through exit strategies. Write them down and agree. For example, if partner A wants to sell and B wants to keep it, B gets the right to buy out A’s half at $X. If A stops paying their half of the mortgage, then what? If A wants to move out and the B stays, does A act as property manager or does B? I’d talk through as many of these as possible and write them up. This isn’t all you need to worry about, but one thing you should definitely do.