Recommendations for Syndication Education and Software
I work for a boutique development and brokerage company. We develop and manage properties for investor groups and a few people in house. We often have people come to us looking to invest in real estate but with such low inventory its hard to find deals for everyone.  Lately we have been doing 5-10 million dollar projects but the company has also done a few in the 100-200 million range. I think there is opportunity for us to do larger projects and helping more people get invested which could be facilitated through syndications. Any recommendations on where I can get more knowledge about setting this up? Any platforms that are great for facilitating these?
[{"id": "gsxedlp", "text": "Probably an attorney. As a syndicator You are an aggregator of capital. So you work both with investors to pool resources into a fund and with either your development shop or an outside one to leverage those funds into deals. For tracking of investors etc i would think some sort of CRM software? For evaluation of deals, excel or argus. For the actual set up and administration of the fund probably an attorney and an accountant.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gsxn3wz", "text": "IMS is fantastic investor reporting software. Hit up their sales guy Jay Datta.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gszauae", "text": "How will you avoid becoming a BD? Excel is all you need for analysis. You\u2019ll need an attorney no matter what, I\u2019d just rely on them a little more than usual and learn that way.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtkjuoh", "text": "I started with Gene Trowbridge's crowdfunding (syndication) book for a very basic overview of group investing. Don't worry about the crowdfunding part, he revised the book to add crowdfunding to his original syndication version.\n\nMore than likely you'll be doing Reg D 506 type exempted offerings and the syndication space is full of gurus teaching this stuff, especially in multifamily. I don't know any development-specific capital-raising gurus but you can learn just enough to be dangerous from many out there. Check out Joe Fairless. He and his partner Theo have quite a few blog posts specific to on-the-ground real estate capital raising. He also has a sponsor-oriented book.\n\nCheck out CrowdfundingLawyers -- Jillian Sidoti is a fairly big player in the syndication space, having worked with Gene Trowbridge for years. She also set up Grant Cardone's Reg A offering.  They have a Youtube channel you can check out with info.\n\nThere's another apartment guy named Dave Lindahl who has a private money course, focused on scaling commercial multifamily through syndication, not smaller-scale \"creative\" financing, that you might pick up on Ebay or from his site.\n\nAttorney's can be a good resource but if you aren't fluent in some of the language and know what you want you'll waste your free session trying to discover how to raise capital. Most won't be open to that type of brain-picking...but who knows it's worth a shot. Keep in mind you may need that free consultation for an actual deal.\n\nSomeone mentioned in the comments about having to become a broker-dealer. The Reg D exemptions allow for private placements within the rules where you are a principal selling your own offering to avoid becoming a BD. But I've known some syndicators who wish to churn the waters more widely on the sales side with a person from the firm becoming \"BDs\" by holding series 7 and 63 licenses and using a platform like Wealth Forge for compliance. A little advanced and not necessary, starting out, in my opinion.\n\nI wouldn't worry about platforms like IMS, Juniper Square or the less expensive ones like SyndicationPro. They are for when you have actual deals you are raising capital on. IMS and JS are $$$$. Like really $$$$ and they aren't in the business to teach syndication.\n\nPersonally, once you learn the mechanics and how to stay within the laws for your exemption, using private placements will put you in a position to raise capital via syndication on just about anything from as-built real estate to notes to developments to rare violins to PE funds and DSTs. It really comes down to articulating your thesis, establishing credibility, and getting on the marketing road-show with your passive investors.\n\nCaveat -- I'm not an attorney but it's critical to really really get a sense on how to stay as safe as possible from the SEC (and FINRA) and when dealing with passive retail investors. Especially \"sophisticated\" non-accredited investors.\n\nGood luck!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]