All Forum Posts by: Heather C.

I don't recommend. One partner usually believes he/she puts in more than the other so friendships can definitely be jeopardized. Plus it can be costly to get out of them if things go south. I know this first hand. My husband and I are young and our partners are mid 60s. We do all the work and they get 1/2 profits. Not the way it was designed but their health has declined so that's the way it's ended up. Too much $ lost if we list all the properties with RE agent and we don't want to pay FMV to buy them out.

Thanks for all the replies. We partnered up with an older couple about 8 years ago. They had the $ and we had the rehab knowledge. We acquired the properties over 3 years and decided we couldn't own any more than that and work full-time and have a life. The other couple is not in great health so not 100% sure on exit strategy. These will be paid for in 15 years. The boat is our only real luxury and will be paid for soon. Fishing is something we love to do so we bought the boat. We are young and have a 10 month old baby. Health ins is one thing killing our budget. We have paid $650/mo for the last year since the baby was born in 2013. In 2014, switching to high deductible so that should save $500/mo. Yes, I agree we blow too much money. I am going to work on reducing our expenses. I would love to stay in the real estate business.

The $20,000 consists of some credit cards (some from personal use and some from rent house renovations--I know not the brightest thing to do, but...) and also a boat loan. Our vehicles are paid for and we owe about $50,000 on our primary residence. Yes, we clear about $1500-$2000/ a year on the rent house. The rent is $750/month and payment is $550/mo including the insurance and taxes. We can make the payments on the debt, I would just love to be out from under it already. We have already had the discussion of no more debt for anything--including vehicles. It may be 10 years before I can buy another car, but if I can't pay cash for it, I'm not buying it.

Background Info: My husband and I own 1 rent house with about $35,000 equity and 6 rent houses with 2 other partners with about $50,000 (our share) equity.We have about $20,000 in debt other than our house that we would love to pay off, but just not sure what the best move is.We make about $100,000/year combined at our jobs.We are considering selling the 1 rent house (with the $35,000 equity) and paying everything off except our house.I am just torn on whether to do this or not.I would love to be out from under the debt, but the rent house will be paid off in 15 years and the rent is $9,000/year. We are ages 35-40.We could probably pay off the debt within 2 years or pay it off now and forgo the $9000/year later.Any thoughts on this?