After you get some experience, I highly recommend paying up and hiring a property manager. 

Just co-mingle money 1 time, or self manage the properties or do any of the work on the properties yourself rather than hiring a property manager or contractors to perform the work and that can be used to pierce the veil. 

Point taken on seperate meters in the future, but it's probably not worth the thousands of dollars I'd have to spend just to save $35/month.Also fwiw I interviewed 7 PMs before I hired.

I hired a contractor to handle things while I was away.

So maybe no need to make this harder than it is -- just find some cashflow properties you like (that won't lose much value when the downturn hits) and hire a good property manager, so that you are not dealing with tenants and toilets. 

It’s not a lot of security as between your second position and the first, there isn’t much equity protecting a default  Also, what type of professional would you hire to prepare the mortgage paperwork?

So would you recommend gutting down to studs and then hiring a mold remediation to come out and take care of the studs if there’s mold on those?

You are going to spend a lot of time on obtaining a mortgage, finding properties, getting insurance policies, hiring a property manager, etc for $150/month.

You get the idea.Then, think about how much overall value and expertise and risk each person is providing and split the equity based on that.For me, the important thing is to structure it so that there are project-level expenses that accurately reflect what it would cost to hire someone to do that. 

Are there options to hire a third party member to check out the house?