Crowdfunding or syndication for equity

[Derek Carroll]

for those of you have have done or at least looked into both as a method for raising equity on your deals.... which do you prefer and why?

Also, Do you find that accredited investors have a preference for investing in real estate deals via a crowdfunding site due to some of the benefits that online can offer over direct syndications (smaller investments, underwritten/screened deals, credibility, etc)?

[David Thompson]

Derek,

I'm biased but as an investor, I got into some crowdfunding deals but I felt like a number and interfaced w/a portal.  Had little access to the syndicate but an initial conf call.  It's costlier to go this route for the syndicate but funds can be secured quickly is what they advertise.  Advantages for investor, usually they can go in deals at lower minimums and create a mutual fund type of investments across geographies and niches.

If you feel you or your partners are fairly connected to capital and you have a good market, deal and experienced team, I personally like the old fashioned capital raise bypassing any middleman.  It's a bit of a challenge to get started but the benefits are tremendous once you have developed a relationship w/investors on a personal level and start delivering on your projects.  I'm in a raise right now for a deal and in four days after my initial email, had 5 returning investors from previous deals that essentially read the deal summary and listened to the investor conf call, then sent me an email w/the amount they want to invest.  That's $500K in about 4 days, w/a few simple emails.  

You don't get there overnight but that's the beauty of understanding your investors objectives, their personal situations, and helping them understand your investments.  Takes time, but I can see fairly soon my problem will be finding deals, not investors... and it cost me nothing and was very fast.  For a great bunch of tips on capital raising, go to my BP profile and start listening to the 3 podcast interviews there.  That should really help you.  PM me or setup a call if you have any questions.