Structuring a Real Estate LLC with a Partner in San Diego, CA

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm looking for financing to build ADUs on a property I recently purchased in San Diego. I'm looking for some insights on how to best structure my deal. Here's a brief overview of my situation:

Project Details: I purchased a single-family home and plan to build 6 accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on the property. The total project cost is estimated to be around $2.2M, with the construction of the ADUs costing about $1.3M and the primary home valued at approximately $900K.

Financing Needs: To fund this project, I need to borrow a majority of the capital. The lenders told me that they require me to have a partner with real estate development experience who would own at least 20% of my LLC to qualify for the loan. This partner's experience and my assets and project plan would be the basis for loan approval.

My Objective: I would like to know how to structure this partnership in a way that allows me to retain maximum control and profit while providing just enough incentive to the partner to participate. Specifically, I want to ensure that the partner's role is limited to satisfying the lender's experience requirement and does not entail a significant share in decision-making or profits