Positive and negatives of buying a property with a Friend?

wedrum · 14 Sep 2016 at 11:48

Cosimo said:
Don't mix business with friendship.

exactly this

neil_g · 14 Sep 2016 at 11:56

haz_pro said:
My brother-in-law done it with his long time school friend.

All was going well until about 2 years in his friends company he owned was bought out for millions, so he decided to go and buy a house outright - fair enough.

Unfortunately for my brother-in-law he couldn't afford to buy his friend out, so he ended up having to go back into the rental market again.

Personally, I wouldn't do it.

nice of his long time friend to offer to give him the rest of the house seeing as he was now loaded.

Paul11 · 14 Sep 2016 at 12:03

Dont do it !

Syla5 · 14 Sep 2016 at 12:05

Kingdom34 said:
Bought with a football team mate..................he couldnt even tie his own laces.

Surely this should have been clear from the start

413x · 14 Sep 2016 at 12:50

To cut a long story short my uncle and step dad went into business together, after some time and many problems my uncle turned up at our door wanting to physically kill him. We come from a farming family so you might imagine what he had.

I'd never do it. Especially on property

Captain Chaos · 14 Sep 2016 at 12:56

Don't do it. It will most likely end in tears down the line.

Reasons as stated already.

Too big a risk to take. A small percentage of people that do this and then it works out for (both sides) down the line has to be fairly small.

Glanza · 14 Sep 2016 at 13:05

wildman said:
all negatives and no positives. Money and friendship does not mix. Somethiong will happen down the line and the next thing you know you won't be friends and it will all go pete tong, but now with the added complication of a property in the mix. Don't do it.

+12 happened to some mates who had known each other 20 odd years, bought a house together then over the period of 12 months they grew to hate each other due to habits and one being a neat freak and the other being a slob.

dowie · 14 Sep 2016 at 13:06

lots of these anecdotes are about buying a house and living with a friend whereas the OP is talking about buying a buy to let with a friend - much less drama and potential for going wrong

don't see the issue providing your friend is not a muppet and you both treat it as purely business, set out what happens in advance in a range of scenarios like one party wanting to sell, payments for repairs and periods where you can't rent it etc..

though one thing I would query is why you need to go halves with a friend, why not just get a cheaper property yourself, the yields tend to decrease for higher priced properties. though I guess there are some advantages in buying say a flat in Canary Wharf in the form of more reliable tenants - you make sure it goes to a financial services professional who'll be easy to track down and won't want any CCJs against his/her name as it would ruin their career.

fez · 14 Sep 2016 at 14:43

Its unlikely to be completely hassle free even if it is a buy to let. At the very least one of you will want to sell it at some point when the other one doesn't. That may result in arguments or it might go smoothly.

Whatever you do I would get contracts written up to cover these things and how you handle issues.

Dj_Jestar · 14 Sep 2016 at 15:28

Just stick to contracts and it'll be fine. Don't have any "friendly agreements" - get it into the mortgage contract what should happen if either/both want to sell up and/or move yourselves or tenants out. Solicitors write this stuff up all the time, it's their bread and butter.

Posters warning you off are talking nonsense, else married couples would never buy houses.

Kuros · 14 Sep 2016 at 15:38

If it's purely commercial then I see no reason not to, just be sure to get a watertight contract set up before anything gets signed...

I personally wouldn't want to get into a mortgage with a friend, purely because you don't know what the future will bring for either of you.

Eurofighter · 14 Sep 2016 at 15:43

I bought a house with my twin brother, sure we argue but we did before we bought the house ha. Still friends.

Jono · 14 Sep 2016 at 15:45

Eurofighter said:
I bought a house with my twin brother, sure we argue but we did before we bought the house ha. Still friends.

Family is a little (lot) different, no?

Street · 14 Sep 2016 at 15:56

If it's a buy to let then no problem, just treat it as a joint investment and get it all sorted with contracts etc. Set it up as a business as suggested above and it'll be fine.

shaf · 14 Sep 2016 at 17:12

Buy to let then that is fine as long as you clear of your responsibilities.

To live in - not recommended.

HungryHippos · 14 Sep 2016 at 20:57

By owning a 2nd "buy to let" property, doesn't this mean if you ever want to sell your main home and move to a new one, you will pay "2nd" home stamp duty rates?

dowie · 14 Sep 2016 at 21:24

Surely those would apply to the second property not his primary residence?

McBain · 14 Sep 2016 at 22:36

413x said:
To cut a long story short my uncle and step dad went into business together, after some time and many problems my uncle turned up at our door wanting to physically kill him. We come from a farming family so you might imagine what he had.

I'd never do it. Especially on property

Death by sharpened leek? Savage.

To OP: I wouldn't.

EGuitarStar · 15 Sep 2016 at 15:00

Get everything checked and signed off by lawyers / solicitors to ensure if there is a fallout between you both, you are not left screwed.

I personally wouldn't as I've trusted "friends" before and then got stung, stung bad....

Buffman · 15 Sep 2016 at 15:32

Why not just get you're own buy to let for 270k in a less crazy market? (eg Manchester etc?)

Seems mad, especially if you're not near London. I guess you're gambling on property prices continuing to spiral upwards