Most of us lie to ourselves...and many people lie to themselves every day, all day long (about finances, fitness, food, friendships, family, faith).

People of respect, in friendship and in love become each other’s biggest cheerleaders.I wish you and your wife all the best! 

In the end, this isn't a friendship- you are running a business and you need to protect your assets, but I believe you can easily do that while maintaining a professional and respectful relationships with tenants. 

I’ve seen and experienced these issues break up friendships and cause these types of JVs dissolve.Good luck!

He originally wanted to rent a place from me to escape his issues but I don't want to entangle a friendship with business. 

But husband is not interested in investing with anyone he has a friendship with.......and likely never will be.

I would do anything just to get the knowledge and make friendships along the way with people with similar interest.

One of the surest ways to ruin friendships is to borrow money or do deals together.You also run the risk of offering a "security" which has SEC requirements....Most states the simplest is;- 1 lender buys the property and rehab, they get a security deed, they are a debt lender- you the owner and manager get the warrantee deed.They have no say, just get some interest rate arrangement.   

He looked at me and said sounds great how much do you need.I darn near fell off my chair and didn't know quite how to respond.So I guess my question is how do I proceed in a safe manner while preserving our friendship.

Fortunately, my mom has developed a friendship over the past few years with them.