@Dion DePaoli  I understood what you said actually I am pretty new to this realm of real estate investing so the deal on my end is a little bit more complicated.

These transactions are complicated enough that they're not worth the headache no matter how sweet the cash flow or equity.  

ONly use lawyer on a complicated large dollar transaction

This is much easier, and less hassle, than going at it backwards and creating bizarre and complicated processes.

I'm sure I'm missing some complication...but seems doable.  

@John Baptiste  Well, it is complicated by the fact that you can back out if you find something on the inspection, but they keep your EM as an investor.

It probably complicates the matter worse by me saying that I am also a student at the same university and I want to move in.

This second option complicate things with lawyers and unforeseen tax and accounting problems.

I listed it and had a problem with the 25 pics I'd just taken with my fancy new SLR camera that I was all excited about, couldn't get them to upload right because the fancy camera was so complicated.

Family involvement always complicates things.The few times I have bought something 50-50 I put a clause in that if one party wants to name a price,, the other party can decide if they want to sell their half of buy the other out at that price..