Syndication final payments

[Heath Clendenning]

I have two questions regarding a syndication I will start. 

If I hold the money for X years:

- When do returns get paid, and by what priority?

- If the final calculation on ROI is determined once the term is up, then the selling/liquidating period is not included in the formula? Doesn't this cause a problem when considering what the REAL annual return is?

- Is there a maximum time limit to return all money to the investors?

An example:

A syndication holds money for 2 years and has an 8% preferred return, 1% management fee and $2500 acquisition fee. The syndication will invest in short term residential opportunities. At the end of the 2 years, the properties are put up for sale and money begins to come back to the account. How to determine what the real ROI was for the investor, given some of their money was not available until the properties were sold. There could easily be a 4-6 month waiting period to this to fully execute.

Thank you for any help you can provide.