New member, invest through syndicator or directly?

[Chris Baker]

Hello all,

I'm totally new to this. I've been reading voraciously, listening to the podcasts, and trying to understand the best route for me. I've got a full time job, with a little cash to spare that I'd like to invest in real estate. I'm currently thinking around a six month ramp time between now, and actually investing in a property.

I'm trying to decide if I start looking for deals on my own, or go with a syndicator? My inclination is to use the syndicator, but parallel to that look for deals and evaluate them against each other, I'd assume for the first few months, or even years, the syndicator would likely have more attractive deals. What do people see as the pros and cons of investing directly verse with a syndicator? I think I could invest around $25k per year with my current financial situation, more if I did a home equity loan.

About me and my situation:

• Married, father of a 2 year old and 4 year old, both me and my wife have full time jobs, so I've got limited time to bird dog deals.
• MBA, and work in commercial building energy efficiency, so I know enough to dangerous, but not enough to be effective (yet, hopefully) when it comes to real estate investing.
• I live in Minneapolis, so I'd likely need to invest in other towns to get cash flowing deals.
• At this point I'm looking for investments, not another full time job like flipping.
• Have been maxing out my 401k and IRAs since graduating from college, so this is additional savings to diversify, and maybe allow an early retirement.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris