All Forum Posts by: Joel Ness

@William E. and @Bryan O. thanks so much for that incredibly useful information!! Those forms will prove invaluable I'm sure moving forward with this. Bryan, the idea of a credit partner is a very interesting one... however, in order for me to not bear any of the risk, wouldn't that person need to be the one putting up the down payment? Apologies if I'm totally misunderstanding this concept. Otherwise, I was leaning more towards the latter option you mentioned, where the sweat equity would be split. The more I'm looking into this and learning about the horror stories, the more I realize how  important it is to get everything meticulously written out from the get-go. Now I think I just need to focus on exactly what those milestones would entail. Thanks again to both of you for pointing me in the right direction.

I'm a new investor looking to make my first buy-and-hold deal in the Houston area but I would not be eligible for a conventional mortgage to finance it. While I have excellent credit and plenty saved up for a down payment on what I'm looking for, I've been in and out of work and don't have two years worth of solid W-2s.

One of my plans for solving this is to find someone with exactly the opposite problem: someone who has great credit and work history but not enough saved up for a down payment. We could cosign a mortgage, I would make the full down payment and we would work out a profit split.

However, it feels like in this situation I would be taking almost all the risk since I would be the only one with initial equity. If (god forbid) a foreclosure was to occur, I would lose far more and this feels like it would give my partner inherently less motivation to make the property work for both of us.

My question is: are there any ways to mitigate this and institute repercussions for failure on both parties, legal or otherwise?

Thanks @Brian Truman!

Hi everyone! My name is Joel and I'm a 26 year old currently looking to invest in the Houston area. I've been looking at the books and blogs, lurking around the forums and listening to the podcast for some months now and I feel like I'm finally ready to take the plunge and buy my first rental SFR or duplex. I'm currently trying to build a team and am searching for good investor friendly agents, property managers, attorneys and CPAs. I would love to connect with any experienced investors who are willing to share their knowledge and advice as well as newbies who are just starting in on this journey as well.