How to find syndication deals

[Steven Greenspan]

What’s the best way to find syndication deals? Interested in being a part of one to learn more.

[Ian Ippolito]

@Lucas Miller

Originally posted by @Luke Miller:

Originally posted by @Ian Ippolito:

@Steven Greenspan, that’s a good question and the answer depends on the type of investor you are and your risk tolerance.

If you are an aggressive investor then you can find hundreds of great syndicated deals a month by simply going to a real estate crowdfunding site. Crowdfunding is just syndication done online. Some examples would be CrowdStreet and RealCrowd. (or if you are interested in debt then you can go to Peer Street, Fund that flip, etc.).

However, if you are a conservative investor (like me) you will find that 99% of the deals will not meet your personal criteria. And you will find the same thing with setting up a Google alert or taking random syndicators off of BP: you are not going to want to invest in the vast majority of those deals, and most will be a complete waste of time.

The way I find deals is that I network with every single person that I know to find out what they are investing in. Then, like many serious investors, I share the diamonds I find with others in an investor club, and the other investors do the same.  If you want my personal favorites, feel free to PM me.

 I have to disagree with one small part. You may technically be right that "crowdfunding is just syndication online", but having a face-to-face (or even over the phone) relationship with the deal sponsor is so much different than over the internet. As a deal sponsor, my limited partners are everything to my business, if I lose their money that is devastating to my reputation. On crowdfunding deals, it happens all the time. 

If you can properly vet your syndication sponsor, you're in a much better spot than on a crowdfunding site in my opinion. 

 
You're certainly entitled to your opinion. My experience has been that in both crowdfunding and old-school syndications, there are only a few very high quality sponsors, there are some really bad ones and most of them are so-so.

You may not realize it, but investors who source syndications through crowdfunding will often also talk to the sponsor over the phone and make site visits. And if they can't go in person, many belong to a investment club that will have a member in the area make a site visit on their behalf (or a surprise pop-in if things are not going well).

Also you may not realize that losing money is just as devastating to sponsors who source money through crowdfunding. And sometimes I would say it is much more devastating because there are some successful old-school syndicators who raise money almost completely based on personal reputation rather than actual performance record. For example, I have run into more than one of these old-school syndication sponsors who became offended when I asked them to produce their complete track record of realized and unrealized deals. They are so used to relying on their personal reputation in their community, which often is a function of how many boards they sit on, what country clubs they belong to, etc. rather than how their past deals went.

In my opinion, whether a syndication deal is sourced on the Internet through crowdfunding, or through networking at the country club, or through introductions an investor club, the investor should be applying the same due diligence strategy and asking the same questions.