@Kelly422 I know you are good friends with the investor, which I am sure is part of what makes this confusion so painful.
I am just looking at it from the outside, and I am mainly worried about you, so if what I say seems mean to your friend... well, I don't know your friend.
If I understand a few things correctly, these things are true:
- You have no real contract with your friend
- Your name is on the lease
- You have control of the account the money goes into
- You do all the work of hosting.
As I see it, *you* really have all the power in this setup.
Your friend, being in Arizona, is physically incapable of doing the hosting.
Additionally, even if he were present, you are the one with all the experience so far.
It sounds like *you* are the critical person in this setup. I know this all would not have started without your friend's investment, but that has already happened. It is water under the bridge. As it stands now, *you* are the critical person. Plus, you control the money.
Honestly, if you were a selfish person, you could just stop answering your friends calls, send him whatever you felt like he deserved, and go about your day. I have seen deals go exactly like that in setups similar to this. Your friend is really lucky you are an honest and thoughtful person.
But both you and your friend should not lose sight of who the more important person is now that your have started.
I know you are going to treat your friend fairly; the way you write and think seems to indicate that you are willing to sacrifice your own well being due to you sense of fairness and obligation.
But don't. Don't devalue yourself. You are doing all the hosting. All of it. Your friends is doing nothing. Zero.
Your friend has no clue what it takes. They have no sense of the value you are providing.
For him to ask you to repay half the original investment AND keep sending him half the money means that
- He would have invested no more money that you
- You would be working for free... forever.
He has no right to tell you what your work is worth. And he is the person least qualified to decide what your hosting is worth. Even a random host who doesn't even know your listing would be better qualified to say what your share should be. (That would describe us on this board.)
You take what money you need to feed your family. You take what money you need to pay for your labor. You take what money you need to keep your listing running smoothly and to keep the money flowing in. Doing anything else would be a waste of the money you have both invested in this project.
And to be completely clear: your friend has no right to ask you to return his original investment AND to keep receiving a share of the income. He can have one or the other.
Here is an analogy: If I use the stock market to buy shares of the Coca-Cola Corporation, I will receive income for owning those shares. If I want the money back, I have to sell the shares of stock. But when I sell the shares, they stop sending me money for owning those shares.
Your friend "bought" a share of this AirBnB project. He gets income for "owning" that share. If your friend wants his original money back, then he is essentially selling his share.
His $12,000 bought half the project, so he gets 50% of the income. If he wants $6,000 back, then he only gets 25% of the income.
By the way, his $12,000 actually should get him 50% of the *profit*, not the total revenue. Expenses come out first... and your salary as a host is an expense that is supposed to come out first. (But that is another matter.)
But do not send him $6,000 unless he agrees that his share of the profit will be halved.