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Ha, I’ve learned the hard way that: By the time you invoke a contract, the relationship is already in trouble.

This is usually true. There's two saving graces, though:

1) Just having the contract sometimes gives people pause about what boundaries they're willing to cross.

2) A contract can help you salvage things that are not the relationship once the relationship has gone south if you choose too.

Keep in mind that #1 works, even if what’s in the contract is unenforceable. Companies use this to their advantage a lot.

And along those lines, enforcing what you have in writing costs a lot of money.

I would add though:

A written agreement is only as good as the people who sign it.