They don’t claim to have all the answers. Certainly they haven’t resolved the big question: What happens if the relationship ends?

But two Toronto couples say they’re committed to figuring it out because pooling their resources to live under one roof has bought them a home in the city that they could not have afforded separately.

“We’re going on blind faith that neither of us will screw each other over,” says Mike Lovas, 35, who shares the main floor and basement of a semi-detached, east-end house with wife Mandy Wintink, 40, and son Ashar, 1.

A lot of people see joint home ownership as too risky, says Lindsey White, 34, a naturopath, who owns the second floor and loft with Bronwyn Whyte, 32, and their son, Nyjah, who turns 1 on Wednesday.

Even financial institutions aren’t entirely equipped to issue mortgages in less traditional buyer scenarios. Some couldn’t understand why it would take four people to buy a home, said Bronwyn, a manager at non-profit Community Food Centres of Canada.

“It was a flag for them. You’d think they would be a lot more open to it,” she said.

Joint home ownership is growing but it still accounts for less than 1 per cent of his business, said mortgage broker Joe Sammut of Mortgage Architects.

The forms needed altering to accommodate four signatures. But really it’s simply a matter of who needs to be on the application to qualify for the loan, he said.

Sammut said he’s heard of some mortgage brokers charging $500 per buyer to make the necessary adjustments. That, he says, is nothing more than a cash grab.

Finding creative solutions to the increasingly unaffordable cost of Toronto housing is a public concern, too, Mandy said. She met Lindsey when they both played hockey at Dalhousie University. Since Bronwyn and Mike came along, all four have shared rentals in Halifax and Toronto at different times.

“We see this as a challenge the city needs to consider,” said Mandy, who owns an academic and career coaching business.

“I can’t imagine how anyone our age making our salaries can afford to buy,” said Mike, a health-care designer.

Although they helped with the down payment, “Our parents (with the exception of Mandy’s mom) thought we were crazy. They all had very traditional expectations. Now they think it’s the best thing ever,” says Lindsey.

Bosley Real Estate agent Chris Cansick, 34, says more millennials need to learn to compromise when it comes to home ownership.

On their own, each couple could probably have afforded a 600-square-foot condo.

“Now these guys have a freehold property that, in the last three or four years, has been appreciating three or four times the rate of condos,” he said.

“I see so many young people going after the cookie-cutter homes. They’re unable to make any trade-offs and they don’t have the deepest pockets,” said Cansick.

He met the foursome in November at an open house. They were actually searching for a duplex rental. For the price of two rents, he suggested they could buy a place. They put in an offer, so unprepared they hadn’t even been pre-approved for a mortgage.

Then came heartbreak. They were outbid.

When they found another Leslieville house for $669,000, their bid of $40,000 over the list price won over two competing offers.

They took possession March 1 but waited a month to move in while a contractor updated some of the electrical and HVAC, and built a new bathroom on the main floor.

On moving day, Lindsey was first in. “When Mandy got here I started tearing up,” she said.

Both families own cars but they park on the street and have landscaped the big shaded garden for the children.

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For Mandy and Mike, the house has given them more space. Their sunny, double living room has high ceilings and leads into a big kitchen they would like to update.

It’s a downsizing for the other family. But, Lindsey said, “Because it’s a smaller space we feel more connected.” They also have big plans, including a big second-floor deck.

Joint ownership involves massive decisions and everyday negotiations. Mike wasn’t sure whether to leave the ground floor door open or call out a greeting to his upstairs friends coming in or out.

Lindsey admits she wrestled with whether it was fair that the joint renovation budget went to a main floor bathroom for Mandy and Mike.

Sammut said these couples are different. They function like family. But he advises joint property owners to set up a legal agreement while they are on good terms.

“If something were to go wrong down the road, you want to make sure you’ve got exit strategies to offset any confrontation. Co-operative buying can work out very well as long as they go into it eyes open,” he said.

Bronwyn, Lindsey, Mike and Mandy have no clear unofficial or legal exit strategy. All relationships take work. This is no different, they say. But they have some understandings.

If one couple comes into money, the cash can be applied to an improvement on their own unit. (There’s also a joint fund for repairs and shared expenses.)

But neither family can apply individual funds to the mortgage because it complicates the payments too much, Bronwyn said.

“How do you account for the interest the one couple is saving versus the other?”

If someone wants to sell, the other couple has right of first refusal on the other half of the house. If they can’t afford it, the departing couple has to rent their half out.

“We’re doing that for the first five years and we’ll revisit it once five years are up,” Bronwyn said.

“The idea is that we don’t want to uproot the other family unnecessarily.”

Correction- July 5, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the two families share a detached house. It is semi-detached.