Mini Syndication - Raising Private Money

[Joseph Escamilla]

My business partner and I are raising money from friends/family for our next Real Estate Project. For background we will probably receive funds from 15-20 people and roughly $150k-$250k.  Many people have expressed interest so now we are trying to figure out all the legal paperwork. 

The first item we would need help with would be drawing up contracts/agreements to add people as passive investors in exchange for their funds to invest. We currently have an LLC set up but we are being advised by a friend that for tax/liability purposes we should maybe collect the money through a corporation that owns the LLC and then have the LLC buy the property?? To get even crazier he said on top of that to maybe have a management company own the corporation? As you can tell we are confused where to start with this and want to make sure everyone is protected, and we are doing it the right way.

The second item we may need help with is filing with the SEC as a syndication. We believe we fall under regulation D section 506(b) for what we are looking to do since many of the investors will be non-accredited and we are not advertising which is allowable under that section.

We have had two attorneys tell us its "above their paygrade" which is not something you want to hear from an already expensive attorney LOL. We are being told we need a corporate attorney. 

Does anyone have any experience with this or could point us in the right direction? Is this going to cost us an arm and a leg and should we be going about it a different way? Any help is appreciated !! 

Thank you 

Joe