Seller finance with a twist of partnership

[Nate Boda]

Hey BiggerPockets friends! I have something that I desperately need advice on. I was driving around my neighborhood in the suburbs of Philly and came across a sign that read "Triplex For Sale By Owner". I called the number and after dispensing pleasantries asked if they had any interest in seller financing, to which they replied "sure". The seller said they would be willing to talk about seller financing but would need some sort of down money, and I told them that was fine as long as we could come up with some numbers that work for both of us. ANYWHO, after the rush of adrenaline began to subside from the possible first creative finance deal i've ever done, I realized I HAVE NO MONEY. lol. I have money saved but it is SAVED because I am, within the next two months, getting my real estate liscence, quitting my day job, and diving into being a full time Realtor, so point being I may need to live on that money for 6 months to possibly a year while I get my "sealegs" and possibly earn little to no income (amazingly long run-on sentence, sorry). So, after thinking things through I called up my two business partners who I run a side business flipping cars with, and ran the idea by them to use our business money to fund the down payment and closing costs. They were 100% on board HOWEVER, here comes the negotiations. I want to make sure that this would be a fair and profitable deal for each of us, and so if each of us are putting an equal amount of our business money we also then need to equally split the responsibilities of running a buy and hold business, or conversely, we need to compensate the person, or persons, who are doing more of the work. Of my two partners, one has alot of handyman skills and can pretty much do anything fix it up wise. The other has a bit of experience in that realm but not too much (could help paint and do cosmetic stuff but thats about it). Neither of the two has any real estate experience. I am also relatively new to the real estate world but am operating a successful duplex rental and have been studying real estate for 2-3 years. That being said, it makes the most sense (i think, please state your opinion) for me to run the business end of things (keeping the books, showing and selecting rentors, etc) and have the other two do the maintenance stuff. So, what do you think, is this is good 33/33/33 split? I guess my main concerns are these two things 1- the guy who has less experience in the maintenance department is getting paid the same as the guy who got the deal and is keeping the books (me), and as the guy who actually knows how to do the fix it stuff, and 2- I am concerned that when the rubber hits the road and a tenant moves out and the place needs to get painted, recarpeted, and all the other odds and ends to get it rent ready, that these guys what with their full time jobs and what not will not be able to do what is necessary. Like I said, I am willing to hustle and even do more than my fair share to an extent, and like @Brandon Turner always says "33% of a deal is better than 100% of no deal" HOWEVER I don't want to get myself into something that could turn sour down the line if our roles aren't clearly identified and taken seriously. So if it was YOU, how would you structure this deal?