Loan Advice Needed Please!

[Elizabeth Maille]

Hi Everyone, I am a 23 year old new to investing. I have an amazing opportunity to be apart of a 7-unit deal with great numbers and I have half of the money I need saved up but I still need 25,000 more for my part of the down payment. My credit score is just under 700 but my credit history is short and I keep getting told "everything looks great but you credit is too young". I've had student loans for 46 months (just shy of 4 years), got my first credit card 7 months ago and have gotten 2 others since to build up my credit score. I tried having my parents co-sign but it didn't strengthen my application enough to approve me for the amount I need. I am a teacher and make 38,000 a year and I have little debt, my DTI is about 16%. I also don't a pay stub with me because I'm on summer break and I'm investing out of state in Florida(with the intention of moving there) and wasn't thinking about bringing one when I came down here. I do have 2 years of tax returns which works for some places but for a bigger loan most places are requiring pay stubs. I can't get hard money because of the financing for the property. Does anyone have any advice on where I could get a personal loan (or any other solutions) for around 25,000 ASAP? I've tried credit unions both in FL and VT, a variety of banks and a large variety of online sites (Lendingtree, Lending Club, Prosper, Avant and many others). Any advice would be appreciated! I would hate to lose this opportunity because the numbers are fantastic. I read BP daily and know there's a wealth of knowledge and experience here so I thought it was worth the shot to see if anyone had advice! Thanks in advance! Elizabeth

[Jon Holdman]

Here's my advice - forget this deal.  You're not in a position to do it.  

From what you write I'm guessing this is some sort of syndication.  I will tell you to only invest in a syndication if:

1) You personally understand the business the syndicate is engaged in well enough to run the project yourself,

2) You have access to enough information that YOU could step into the deal and start running it, and 

3) Your investment is less than 10% of your nest egg.

IDK about 1 and 2 in this case.  Number 3 sounds like its 200% of your nest egg.  Bad, bad idea.   The chances of losing this investment entirely are significant.  I have investments in three syndications.  One is great - hard money lending, which I understand thoroughly.  One has a chance of returning something, but is currently worth maybe a third of what I put in, and has returned nothing in the last seven years.  That's the way it goes with down payments when property values fall.  The other one is even worse.  It was a $50K investment in a development deal.  Lots of things went wrong, including the main guy in the underlying deal stealing some of the money.  The guy who stepped in and tried very hard to salvage the deal (see #2) recently informed us he had accepted an offer for the land.  The net back to investors?  $0.  Complete loss.  It can and does happen, no matter what sort of grand tales the syndicator tells up front.  A properly done syndication will require you to sign a form that says, among other things, "This is a bad investment.  You will likely lose your entire investment.  Only a fool would invest in this deal."  That protects the syndicator against lawsuits if things go bad.  You would be wise to heed those words.