Cooperative negotiation is a solvable problem.

The offer was accepted two weeks ago: $720,000, 25% down. Ben is putting in $126,000. Priya is putting in $54,000 — every dollar she has. On paper that's a 70/30 split, and on paper, fair.

After closing, Ben will still have $200,000. Priya will have $2,000. Both of them want a written agreement. Both of them have been avoiding bringing it up, because each is afraid the other will read "I want to write this down" as "I'm hedging against you."

Ben and Priya each walked through their side with Mediator privately. The assistant pressed each of them on the pieces that mattered — down payment math, take-home income, savings after closing, and what each wanted if things fell apart — before drafting anything. Then Mediator got to work: generating candidate agreements, pitting them against each other, scoring each against both sides' needs, round after round, until no new draft could do better.

What it surfaced was something neither of them had proposed — and something both could sign:

The $10,000 that makes 70/30 fair.

Before any equity math starts, Ben puts $10,000 into Priya's savings. Not a loan. Not part of the down payment. Priya keeps it whatever happens with the house. The number acknowledges what 70/30 alone would quietly erase: Priya walking into this house with $2,000 to her name while Ben still has $200,000.

Everything else is how 70/30 lives over time:

• Mortgage payments split by income, not evenly. Currently 65/35. Recalculated every January. Priya's equity grows as she pays her share.
• Caregiving protection. If one of them stays home with a child, they keep earning equity as if paying their full share. No quiet penalty for the partner home with the kids.
• Breakup clauses with real deadlines. 30 days to opt for a buyout. 90 days to fund it after valuation. If nobody can, the house goes on the market and proceeds split by equity.

Read the full agreement →

Or see what each of them wrote privately, before Mediator ran: Ben's statement · Priya's statement