Bad/Failed Syndication deals?????

[Keong Kam]

Has anyone experienced losses or failures (i.e. significantly less than expected return) through participating (GP or LP) in professional MF syndications? If so, can you share? What went wrong? And what was the outcome? 

I strongly believe that carefully vetted commercial MF syndication is a good investment vehicle due to many many reasons (professionally managed, more passive, economy of scale due to large units, spread of risk due to multiple partners, and all the goods of Commercial MF like forced appreciation through value add, not only to mention all the tax benefits)... But I wonder if anyone has been in 'bad' syndication deals before.

[Account Closed]

My very first RE investment (way before BP) was a syndication (although I didnt know that word). It was a development project of townhomes. The principals were inexperienced and I had no experience to even ask the right questions. Eventually the LPs sued the GPs (mostly because of me) and we recovered the principle amounts plus legal fees but it took almost 10 years to get the money back. I learned the lesson that WHO you invest in is far more important than WHAT you invest in.