Some people consider last year's actuals to cover the expenses and forget about vacancy allowance, expense percentage, CAPEX, etc.

What percentages of each? 

Figure out exactly what each person is bringing to the business, how much time they'll be spending, and then work the percentages from there. 

Up until now an agreement was in place to share a percentage of the 6% with the buyer's brokerage. 

As for flat percentage: I am not a big fan of that, personally.  

I followed code 527 of IRS and used per sq ft price to assign purchase price to both houses. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527#en_US_2023_publink1000...Then I calculated percentage for each house based on sq ft.

@Shiwei Qu Airdna is a great resource for occupancy percentage, but the revenue reported is off.

I tend to look at my portfolio as a whole: What percentage ofleverage do I have?

We plan on using the VA loan and to buy down points, at least 1 percentage point worth.We’ve considered a house at a lower cost (250-350k), but they generally need some work (kitchen/bathroom renovations).

That one house you partner up  for and do is worth more to you(percentage wise) then one of the many buildings your architecture clients own.