General questions regarding friends buying a duplex to live in separately, not to rent out for profit (yet), in central WI.

The vast majority of opinions/suggestions/etc I see on "my friend and I want to buy a duplex" seem geared towards investing in one and the pitfalls that come with that. But my friend and I are considering buying one for us to live in, one in each half, so there's no investing going on. The idea is that years down the line if they decide to move out to the country and buy land, I'd be left with a unit I can rent out, and until then, we save money on living expenses by splitting the mortgage etc. Vs buying a single family home and doing the same, then me having to cover the entire mortgage of the single family home after they eventually leave.

Neither of us have significant others nor any desire of such, so future families are not a foreseeable issue (nor benefit in my case for paying a mortgage, if they leave). They are a self employed dog sitter (which actually makes really good money) and would be using their half of the duplex to do at home sitting which they can't do in our current apartment (we have been roommates for a little under a year now and friends for 10+ years) which would increase their profits even more. I don't know how that would play in regarding residential/business stuff as that's all on their end.

What do we need to know before actually planning any of this? Nothing will be happening for a good year even if we do go through with it while I adjust to other financial needs and put money aside, but we'd need to know if it's actually a good idea or just one of those "wouldn't it be neat if" scenarios. Would we be best both getting on the loan or me getting it and just having them as a tenant with rent equal to the split costs? Do we need the LLC ideas I often see on this topic? What don't I know that I should be asking about? I do also realize them having large quantities of dogs in their half of the building will likely not be good for the property damage-wise, I would expect including a fee to their half of expenses that will be used for that should definitely happen, and could always be refundable if by some miracle no damage occurs and they do actually move out.

submitted by /u/Ladyjulianne
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/rqdtub/general_questions_regarding_friends_buying_a/