Cost of creating partnership contract

[Joseph Belgrad]

I currently have a deal happening in the works in partnership with a wholesaler. He's found a great deal in which we can get a duplex for 310 and flip it to a buyer already lined up for 365. The trouble is he has no financing. I happen to have access to enough cash to make the deal happen. Therefore, we have chosen to partner for a 50/50 split of the profits by him bringing the deal and making it happen and me bringing the financing.

I spoke with a lawyer about drawing up such an agreement between the two of us, and he said that he could create such an agreement for $5000-$7500 which did not include the two $1000 LLC creations he felt were necessary. My question is does $7000-$9500 to make this partnership agreement seem like a reasonable price or am I being gouged somewhere? This is in Massachusetts.

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

That seems incredibly high to me, so I think there must be something going on that I'm missing in this situation. Why wouldn't you just form a single LLC that you own 50/50? Is there some additional protection that you're looking for in this situation?