How to trust new syndicate

[Roy Mitle]

One of my friends has a property under lock and is looking to raise a syndicate. He needs to raise $13M and claims he is investing $1M of his own money. The property will be held as tenants in common and is located in Texas, Houston area. The financials do work out with CoC of 2x conservatively estimated.

a) How can I trust he is putting in $1M of his own money.

b) I have done LP deals in professionally managed syndicates by PE firms before. First time doing Tenants in common. Are there things I need to watch out for

c) Any other things to be careful about investing with a first time syndicate