How do you do DD on a multi-family syndication?

[Jonathan Gordon]

Hi Bigger Pockets community,

    I have been investing in multi-family syndications for several years now and have experienced decent success in the space. When I started, I was living in Southern California and met the sponsors at local real estate investing meetup groups. Over the years, my life circumstances have changed and I've moved to the Puget Sound area (about 1-1.5 hours from Seattle).

    I still invest with the sponsors I met that are successful and experienced. Additionally, for some of my recent investments, I've been utilizing a professional networker I met on bigger pockets (David Thompson) and later in person at one of the meet up groups in southern california. Im on his email newsletter so I just get offerings sent to me on a monthly basis which I look into and invest if I like the deal.

However, over the last few months, Ive started to question how I do my DD on these deal. I put ALOT of trust in the deal middleman and other sponsors Ive met and spend just an hour or two vetting out the offering. I usually look for clear value-add potential and conservative financing in a deal and Im happy. But with recession gloom on the horizon, I've realized that I need to step up my DD and get more involved. 

So as someone who wants to step up my DD game and maybe at some point become a key partner on a deal or two, what some tips you have and how do YOU do DD on a syndication deal and partner?