buying a property with a partner

[Benjamin Kanevsky]

I plan to buy some properties with a friend of mine. Is it fine to have the mortgage in his name and have both people on the title? What is the right process for doing so?

[Brian Mathews]

I'll start out by saying the only ship that won't sail is a partnership. Make sure you lay out every detail of how things will work in print. No handshake deals or we're friends, that will never happen to us. Because it will and the friendship will be ruined. People have a way of forgetting or twisting what was said to benefit them. What if you cannot come up with money for something and one of the houses gets repo'd. His credit will be screwed up, not yours. He has more risk (his credit) than you do and I have a feeling that over time, he will grow to resent that. I'd alternate each of you having a mortgage in your name and his in properties that are very similar, so when the partnership dissolves and it will, because nothing is forever, you each will have equal assets to walk away with.