Finding Syndication's to Invest In

[Ryan Barr]

I am trying to find local-ish apartment complex syndicator's and am having a tough time finding relevant info off of Google, my search terms may be poor. Can someone lead me down a path where I can find the people/companies who acquire and self manage their properties?

[Brian Burke]

@Ryan Barr if you are looking for groups that are buying specifically in Kansas City you could look in public records at who owns properties similar to the ones you'd be interested in investing in. Disregard ones owned by individuals, those aren't syndicators. Properties owned by syndicators are the ones owned by obscure LLC names that might be 2 or 3 letters followed by the property name (fairly common practice) or might be something like "Acme Income Fund IV", or even the name of the company followed by the property name.

The next step is to figure out who that is. The letters might be a clue. For example, the multifamily division of my company is called Praxis Multifamily. So we name our entities like "PM Marvin Gardens LLC" with the "PM" represents the initials of the company, followed by the property name.

The next step is to look at the owner's address. Google the address and see if it hits on any business names. See if any of those names sound like real estate or financial services type of companies, and if any of them start with the letters in the LLC name. Any matches might be your target.

That’s a ton of work.  So an easier way is to ask local multifamily brokers. They might give you good information, they might not. 

Another method is to search for “real estate private equity” or similar terms and then look for groups located near you or visit their websites and see if they are buying near you. 

All of that said, finding groups is the easy part (relatively speaking).  Finding good groups is the real challenge. You have to do your due diligence. You’re flying blind searching for groups on your own.  Most syndicators don’t advertise, their client base grows by word-of-mouth and referrals. Your searches won’t have the benefit of either of those, so you have to carefully research them.

Then comes the question of “why local”?  One of the best things about investing in syndications is that it’s a passive activity (after you do your DD).  This breaks the geographical barriers of direct real estate ownership. Most experienced mid to large size shops have a fairly large geographical footprint which gives diversification opportunities to their clients. There’s a chance that you could find a great group located hundreds or even thousands of miles away from you that is buying real estate located in other states (with better economic fundamentals) and get better results than investing with a local shop buying locally.  And since you don’t have to go to the property to respond to maintenance requests the distance isn’t an obstacle.