Invest with a partner (my brother) or go solo?

Question

Alright, so my brother and I both live in Los Angeles and we're both looking to get into REI. We both want to get a 2-4plex to owner occupy, but it's more difficult to finance if we go solo (but not impossible). If we were to do it together, we'd want to owner occupy a 4plex... meaning I would take one unit, he would take another, and we'd rent out the remaining two.  Here's a list of pros/cons I came up with... how good/bad of an idea is this? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

PROS

• have a better chance of purchasing a property
• gives us more options of what to purchase at a higher price point
• can share landlording responsibilities
• potentially putting in less of a downpayment, freeing up cash for another investment
• other stuff I'm sure I'm missing

CONS

• only two of the units would be rented out
• not getting the max rent from the unit the other brother is living in
• other stuff I'm sure I'm missing

Bana Haffar · Answer

I would agree wit David Tipton and add that it would also depend on the property itself and how the numbers look. You still want to be making solid rental income from the remaining rental units on the property.

...you could also look at is as a temporary situation, renovate the units you live in then move out and rent them out at market.

David Tipton · Answer

I think it's a good idea, so long as you and your bro get along.  I would just treat it like any other partnership and make sure you define carefully in advance what is expected of each person in a partnership agreement.

Shamim Toufighian · Answer

@David Tipton Thanks, we get along well... but you never know when going into business together. I'm sure, as you said, if everything is defined carefully in advance, things should be fine and we won't want to kill each other. :)

@Will F. Logan A. What do you guys think?