Partnership Agreements - What Would You Do if You Were Me?

Partnership Agreements - What Would You Do if You Were Me?

Lexington, KY · Member since 2019 · 9 posts · 3 votes

BP Friends,

I need your help thinking big and wanted to ask for your opinion if you don't mind giving it.

Doubling my cash with a partner(s) allows me to enter bigger multi family home spaces. Why buy small and consolidate with 1031Es down-the-road if I can start bigger to begin with and keep my property count down and unit count up?  The problem is that I have always viewed partnership as an added legal and logistical complexity I do not want to utilize in my first deal or two.  I assumed I would have so much going on anyway fighting the learning curve myself, it would be harder (type A/stubborn).  Now, I have people in my growing circle offering to partner with their money and the opportunity to enter bigger models quicker in my journey has me thinking.

I have told these potential partners I would need to see a partnership agreement drafted of some type which dictated how our money collaborates together on our first deal and our investment portfolio in total. Is every dollar of payments, repairs, costs split equally across partners for perpetuity? Are any partners allowed to pull money out of the portfolio at any time or must all funds be deposited back into the business to keep growing the purchases quicker? These are things I planned to do when going lone wolf and I want to understand how people approach these agreements when teaming-up and what needed structure via contracts maybe our needed to make them work properly.

What did you do when starting with partners?

Thank You,

Jake

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  • Financial Advisor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2018 · 294 posts · 165 votes
    6y

    @Michael Jake Higgins

    Those are all common questions. Frankly speaking you can design it anyway you want. Traditionally, P/L will be split based on the amount each partner contributed. If a partner wants to pull some out, his share of P/L in the future will be less. 

    Unfortunately, there is no limit on the ways these can work. You can accept more than cash from your new partners, which introduces complexity as to what exactly its worth. 

    Its worth hiring a pro as there are endless items you should probably cover in such an agreement. Just make sure you think through the ending / exit plan. Ultimately, everyone will want some or all of their money back and thats where poor designed ones blow up. 

    Happy to refer you to some excellent RE attorneys if you need any help.

  • Lexington, KY · Member since 2019 · 9 posts · 3 votes
    6y

    @Daniel McNulty Thanks for your words, the P/L ownership make sense, like shares of the overall business or portfolio.  

    I would gladly take a few real estate attorney references if you know anyone in my area or that would work with me so that I can explore this further.  I will message you to follow up.  

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