I have my first duplex up and running and am in the talks with others to joint venture and build the portfolio.

However, It's worth noting that mere joint ownership of real estate and rent collections does not necessarily rise to the level of joint business activity that constitutes a partnership.

At the very least, I'm sure they would have sabotaged my fence posts during the night while the concrete was curing.I'm not going to bother discussing a "joint" fence with the rental property owner, for a number of reasons – one being that my new fence would extend well beyond the existing chain link fence border, to cover the entire side of my house and well into my front yard, up to the allowed street setback point, and there's no way he would agree to share in that additional cost.

Under the 50% rule, $700/month is eaten up if the gross rent is $1,400, and the other $700 will go to the mortgage (I think it's 680 or so), which means net rental cash flow would be nothing...not a very strong case to rent@Daniel Burke Not *100%* decided, but that was our knee jerk reaction.

Wear a helmet and knee pads and you'll survive the fall. 

@Dan Handford, in my experience legal fees tend to become hefty when there is another general partner/issuer level entity joint venturing and that JV agreement has to be laboriously drafted because the syndicator and the separate entity both require control, but are unable or unwilling to partner within the same management company of the syndicate.

To stay they would need to pay immediately and get on there knees to beg forgiveness.

•The investment could be structured in many ways: secured or unsecured promissory note, joint venture, etc.

So, it really depends on the facts and circumstances, but this is something you may want to double-check.The issue with getting your own appraisal is that a lender may not trust that it wasn't done independently or jointly.

You're essentially asking the owner to be a joint investor in the equity of the flip.