Raising private money in a syndicated deal

[Ryan Franklin]

Hi guys...I'm putting together my first syndicated apartment complex deal and I have questions regarding raising private funds in conjunction with bank commercial mortgage lending.

For these questions assume I have already analyzed and put together a deal package and sent it out to investors.

1.) Say I have enough committed investors to fund the deal. At what point do I take their money? I imagine I wouldn't take the money until I have the deal under contract, but what if I need to show proof of funds before I can get the deal under contract?

2.) If I don't take the money until after I get a deal under contract, I assume there is a high likelihood that one or more investors might pull out of the deal leaving me short of the required capital. Do I "overbook" commitments to guard against this type of scenario - and give precedence to the people that committed but get left out of the deal in my next deal?