Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It depends on your business plan for the property. At a minimum you need a co-ownership agreement that sets out who will contribute what and what their share of income and expenses will be. If your lender will allow it, you may want to go so far as to form an LLC for liability protections. LLC's are usually disfavored over incorporation for tax reasons, but in real estate investments they can work well. A lot will depend on whether you expect to make money off cash flow from rents or from appreciation of the property. Owning the property in an LLC can also be very favorable when you go to sell, as you can sell the LLC instead of the property and the buyer avoids a lot of taxes, making the property more valuable. In between would be a partnership agreement.

I offer discounted basic consultations on how to select the business structure for this kind of transaction, and the consultation fee becomes a credit to your bill if you then hire me to prepare your transaction documents. I have conference facilities in downtown San Francisco. If you would like to arrange a consultation, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email.

Since it is a large investment and many things could go wrong, you do need to consult an attorney, such as Mr. McCormick who is very experienced, to get at least a fundamental understanding of the possibilities.