Personally, if the property is in a bad area, this will give you headaches no matter what.

For funding, explore options like FHA loans, personal savings, or creative financing, and focus on New Jersey markets that align with your goals, such as Newark for rentals or commuter towns for house hacking.

Can confirm Joseph is a real person 

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

I had the initial call with a PadSplit sales person, but I wanted to talk to somebody who's actually doing it to get their perspective and advice.

It's been 2.5 years since I purchased my first property and now that everything in my personal life has slowed down I'm back on the horse and ready to find my next investment.

If you make the person an LLC employee you can get around it, but partner does need to be careful. 

HELOCs are fine, but keep in mind that you really only want to use 50 percent of less (each) of your available equity just so you aren't creating a problem that you can't solve later if the value of your personal residences fluctuates.If you both have W2 jobs though, have you looked into getting qualified together and just getting a loan, 10 percent down each?

You must report rental income on Schedule E and can deduct rental expenses like repairs, maintenance, property taxes, mortgage interest (allocated between personal and rental use), and depreciation for the rented portion.

We're based in Tampa and, in addition to personally investing, I own a mortgage company that provides financing for tons of investors.