I am definitely not looking into complex legal things like starting a fund.

I wanted to go with gifted funds but they would need to be "seasoned".

Since you're putting only $35k down it sounds like you'd need someone to come and fund the whole deal.

My mom wants to partner with me and buy property together since she has perfect credit and a better chance at being taken seriously by the banks that will give us a mortgage. we are going to go 50/50 on the down payment and all expenses/maintenance. we will be getting an fha loan and putting 3.5% down which will allow us to have a big emergency fund.

There will be closing costs and a funding fee that you can wrap into the VA loan if you wish.

For me, I look for an ROI of at least 10-15% annually on my tied up funds before even considering a deal. 

Unless I can get private business insurance that excludes the extra $250/year mandated by FEMA/NFIP, then I'll probably just pool funds from all the rentals into one for disaster relief savings.  

If the down payment is not your own personal funds, the contributor must document that repayment is not expected.

His philosophy is if wages are stagnant, then there won't be any raised rents and therefore, there won't be any merchant builders adding new product to the area.

I'd tell them to invest it for themselves in an index fund if there wasn't any appealing buy and hold properties you had your eye on.I would not force buying a property just because the money is available.