How to buy property as a 3 way partnership safely?

How to buy property as a 3 way partnership safely?

Member since 2019 · 1 post · 0 votes

So myself and 2 co-workers who all share a common interest in REI have decided to team up and form a 3 way partnership to help split the duties and financial risks between us. We have decided to use the BRRRR method.We are each starting with an initial contribution of $10k and splitting the profits (after all expenses and contingency funds) based on our ownership percentage, starting at 1/3rd each initially.

My question is really, how do we structure the purchase of our first property such that no individual is at risk of being screwed if it all falls apart? I understand that as a new LLC a lender would probably require a personal guarantee and it's likely that we will need to use one of our credits for a credit pull. How do you purchase a property as a 3 person entity so that all 3 hold equal ownership and all 3 on the hook if it goes wrong? I trust them but still wouldn't want to take full responsibility for the mortgage without any legal protection.

Our lawyer suggested that we talk to lenders (in progress) and get under contract before officially forming the partnership LLC.

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  • Real Estate Broker · Salt Lake City & Oklahoma City · Member since 2018 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    Hey @Luke Izlar!  Welcome to the BP forums!  

    The only way I can see this working is for ONE of you to be the guarantor of the loan, or for ALL of you to be the guarantor.  Without guaranty for the loan, which will be collateralized on the business through collateralization of the people who make up the business, the bank won't do the loan.  Instead, this is where hard money lenders come in.  Hard money is collateralized on the hard asset of the project itself.  

    Costs will be higher with this route, but it would accomplish your design to not have any one individual "on the hook" for non-performance of the loan.

    However, I'd encourage you to either be comfortable with the liability in the deal or to not do the deal.  There are plenty of ways to profit through real estate investing that don't involve this particular risk, and there's nothing right or wrong about any particular path to wealth through real estate.

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