Let’s say you had a friend who invited you to join them in investing in a real estate property they perceived as seriously undervalued. They needed your assistance because they lacked adequate funds to make the down payment and knew you had sufficient cash reserves to finance the balance.

They therefore had convinced you that, with little effort on your part, this was a rare opportunity to turn a substantial profit. The only problem was that although they wanted you to put up half the mortgage costs, they also felt that once it sold you should receive only 35 percent of the proceeds. Their thinking was that because they’d put in substantial research time to locate the property, as well as determine market values in the area, it was only fair that the potential profit not be split equally.

You finally agreed to the deal but with some reluctance. Though you could understand your friend’s reasoning, it nonetheless felt exploitative, treating you less as a friend than a business partner with fewer rights than they offered themselves.

After the property was purchased, economic conditions fortuitously changed disastrously to this joint investment. And in the home’s neighborhood—seen as in a location significantly less desirable than those surrounding it—the market value decreased disproportionately.

After waiting over two years for the house to return to at least its value when the two........

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