{"id":7169,"date":"2026-01-21T08:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=7169"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:04:31","slug":"sign-of-the-times-companies-emerge-to-help-friends-acquire-deeds-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/sign-of-the-times-companies-emerge-to-help-friends-acquire-deeds-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Sign of the Times: Companies Emerge to Help Friends Acquire Deeds Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A form of co-ownership called the tenancy in common<\/em><\/a> is picking up steam across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years ago, a Los Angeles company started turning single-home properties into townhome associations where co-buyers could share living spaces. Then we saw \u201cupzoning\u201d laws<\/a> take shape. California\u2019s Senate Bill 9 allowed single-unit property owners to split their parcels into multiple housing units. Surely, it seemed, a long-term trend had been set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the lending industry is reshaping itself to support the co-buying experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Young Buyers Pool Resources. Lenders Take Note.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gen Z is a co-buying generation. Maybe it has to be. Most aspiring deed holders aged 30 and younger say their incomes won\u2019t let them cover purchase and mortgage costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet plenty of young adults have rent fatigue. Many have a strong desire to finally start building equity<\/a> in their own homes. If going it alone is financially impossible, people will build equity together, by co-buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, is anyone really up for this? As a matter of fact, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One in three young adults are open to pooling their funds to buy homes with friends, co-workers, siblings or other non-romantic partners. Fewer than a fifth of millennials, who are now over 30, would do the same. But that means some would do it \u2014 and they are doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, 15% of U.S. adults have co-purchased a home with someone who\u2019s not their life partner, according to recent reporting. But not all buyers do it with the same goals in mind. Under-30s want personal residences. Older buyers tend to be interested in pooling resources for investment properties.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while, lenders are listening. They\u2019re prepared to help unrelated co-borrowers apply for loans together. They accept credit models that help unconventional borrowers qualify\u2014by adding rent, utility, and phone payments into credit profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And financial companies now exist specifically to guide shared purchases.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech Companies, Meet the Tenants in Common<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Online real estate company Opendoor Technologies confirms the trend. Opendoor told Fortune <\/em>that co-buying is on the rise among first-time homebuyers. But the legal category of this style of co-ownership, the tenancy in common<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> isn\u2019t new. It\u2019s just receiving more attention in an ongoing affordability crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how does a co-buying plan come together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-buying involves multiple agreements: between the buyers; between buyers and the seller; and between borrowers and lenders. To make it all work, Seattle-based CoBuy offers a service to hold co-ownership agreements (\u201cjoint ventures\u201d) on the Algorand blockchain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCo-owning with buddies is complicated. With Co-ownerOS™, it’s easy.\u201d That\u2019s CoBuy\u2019s motto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaborative approach to acquiring a deed is changing the way chains of titles operate over time. Without the traditional rights of survivorship that many life partners want, non-romantic co-owners need different rights. Co-buyers want to be able to sell or borrow against their own shares, on their own timelines. With a tenancy in common, they can. There\u2019s no need for co-owner consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s on the Deed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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There are different ways to vest a co-ownership on the deed. With a tenancy in common, each owns a percentage of the property and can pass it on as they wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(This is an alternative to the joint tenancy<\/em> style of vesting a deed. Popular with married couples, a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship lets co-owners seamlessly leave each other their share when one passes away.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenants in common can be a duo or a larger group. They can be related or unrelated. When co-owners acquire a property as tenants in common, they should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n