Jess and I are starting to look into buying a house in Astoria, NY, not far from Manhattan. In Astoria, there are some co-ops and condos available, but more often, 2 to 3-family houses come up for sale. We've been looking into all options but would prefer to have a house. Most houses are a few hundred thousand more than we can realistically afford.
Our current housemates, S&E, are also starting to look for a place to buy, and we've started informally discussing the idea of forming an ad-hoc partnership, so we can afford a house. By splitting (or near-splitting) the cost, we can both afford nice apartments in the same house, and possibly even rent out a third apartment to a tenant, and share landlord duties. There's even a chance we wouldn't be completely house-poor.
S&E are in their 30s, and like us, are extremely responsible people with steady income, and are great tenants in our current place. Our landlord doesn't show up to our house very often, and S takes care of a lot of his duties - for no other reason than he likes to keep the place he lives in running well. We're good friends, not best friends, and have learned the delicate dynamic of respecting each other's space. There are times when we'll hang out all weekend, and times when we won't see each other for a few weeks. In other words, we get along, and understand each other, pretty well. We enjoy living together, and important to us, E generously watches our kitties when we're gone.
I include the above because my feeling is that I'm going to get some responses warning us of the pitfalls of mixing business and friends. I understand that, and we're definitely trying to be sensitive to this. If you have any specific examples of things to avoid, or bad experiences, that would be helpful, but we already understand that sometimes, friendships and business do not mix. We're willing to give it a try and see if we can make it happen. We are also exploring other avenues and opportunities and are not completely tied to the idea of the partnership, either.
Can anybody give advice on the feasibility of creating a partnernship, who would be the best person to talk to about it, whether contracts would be drawn and agreed on before looking at a house, and whether brokers are more or less willing to work with people in such a partnership? Any other advice/thoughts are also helpful. Thanks so much.