How did you make the jump into buying and managing deals on your own?
I’ve worked in PERE for about 7 years and have bought, managed, and sold many product types in the  $5 - $100 M+ range mostly with value add strategies. 

I’d like to get started on my own at some point, obviously with smaller deals. 

Questions I have are:

How did you get the capital for the first few deals? I have money saved but prob not enough to buy without finding outside capital. 

What are the legal steps necessary as far as setting up LLCs, getting any necessary licenses, etc? 

How did you find the deals?
[{"id": "gtpx2ke", "text": "&gt; How did you find the deals?\n\nWe started out doing loan / equity brokerage and investment sales. Eventually, we started investing in projects so I can tell you how we went about it.\n\nThrough our everyday business, we found owners / developers who needed co-GP partners. Typically, they had experience working for someone else and now they were out on their own. So they had the experience but not the balance sheet needed to execute. They needed help raising the debt and equity along with putting up the predevelopment / GP money and any guarantees. First partner we did 4 deals with until they made too much money and didn't need us. Second one we did 1 deal with until he made too much money and didn't need us. We are on our third partner and closing on our 3rd and 4th deals in the coming months. We'll probably do another 2-3 deals with the current co-GP until they don't need us anymore, and then we'll probably find someone else. \n\nThese are all deals where we take active roles in the projects along with recourse on loans. We aren't passive. We also do passive investments where we will invest in the GP (but there we aren't taking recourse and have almost no decision rights).\n\nTo add, a few of the deals we found on our own and then brought in the partner we know would let us invest with them vs flipping the site. Good way to get to invest in the deals.\n\n&gt; I\u2019d like to get started on my own at some point, obviously with smaller deals.\n\nIf you're familiar with larger deals, I'd look there. I'd have a tough time raising the capital for a $10M deal and a much easier time for a $100M deal given my current network is more focused on larger, institutional quality deals. Issue is you have no experience executing so you might need to partner with someone who does.\n\n&gt; What are the legal steps necessary as far as setting up LLCs, getting any necessary licenses, etc?\n\nThat's kind of basic stuff that you should get a handle on first.", "replies": [{"id": "gwzq4h7", "text": "What kind of terms are you seeing? We\u2019re tracking approx. $400MM in stabilized shopping centers, with some paper development opportunities, but are working through a lot of family offices to get each one across the line. It\u2019s a hassle to UW each property 4+ times on different models for each of the LPs to review.", "replies": [{"id": "gx1ems2", "text": "You'd have to be way more specific on 'what terms are you seeing.' LP? GP? Core? Value Add? Development? Plus all the nuances that go with each type of transactions.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtpxwy9", "text": "I cannot emphasize enough that everything falls into place once you have the deal under contract. Given your experience the easiest way to get started would be to put a small deal \u00b1$1-3MM under contract(you must close), and either bring it to an established equity partner or raise the money from friends and family. Be conservative at first until you have the experience and the moxy to play looser, i.e. 50% LTV and lots of residual value in the dirt at purchase.\n\nYou will have \u00b1$50,000 in expenses that you can be re-reimbursed for, but need to front. Once you have a deal it is relatively easy to find equity partners because there a lot of folks with money and a shortage of good deals. I would expect you have the underwriting and transactional skills necessary, but you need to be very careful about raising money and consult a securities attorney BEFORE speaking with investors to draft the PPM, Subscription Agreement and the OA, and advise you on the process. Look up Gene Trowbridge's books/articles for a primer.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtqrtgu", "text": "So I haven\u2019t made the move have been in PE side for 15+ years, honestly have to say that if you can find country club money for the GP slice and have the resume there are enough people out there that are desperate to put money out that you should be able to find an LP allocator. 2 caveats - (1) deal needs to be a screamer (2) 7 years experience isn\u2019t a lot of time under your belt, even if it\u2019s working for one of the blue chip mega funds. \n\nAlso as it pertains to entity set up talk to a lawyer but if you haven\u2019t gotten to that part of the deal in your career experience you probably aren\u2019t ready to go out on your own if you\u2019re looking to buy institutional deals. \n\nAlso not sure why you\u2019re looking for smaller deals, just as much work buying a $5mm deal (if not more because you\u2019re doing a full club syndication) as it is a $50.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]