Real life syndication feedback? From investors and syndicators

[Monica C.]

I think it would help everyone curious about syndications if we shared how syndication investing has really been like for those with experience. 

Have your investments met projected returns? What have you been happy or unhappy with? What have you noticed that syndicators were doing well or poorly on? Also sharing if you're a syndicator yourself and what that journey's been like, especially for newer syndicators -- what were some surprises good or bad that you've experienced during your first couple deals? How would you have done things differently?

I personally have invested in a couple syndications in the last 3 years and none have been completed yet. Things I value more now is communication and transparency. I have investments that send on-time quarterly reports with documents like rent rolls, expense reports, detailed explanations of whether we are in line with initial projections or not and if things have been improving or not and why. I do think a clearer visual on these metrics would be great and clear number comparisons, as otherwise I have to do calculations myself and go back to pull up the initial offering memorandum to compare numbers. As an investor, the numbers seem to be the easiest way for me to check if things are going well although I understand the bigger picture is more complex than that. I have one investment that sends very sparse updates with not very specific details on things like numbers but rather more generalized descriptions about how things are going. I happen to know someone on the operating team more personally, so would hear more detailed updates if I reached out, and felt that these details would be appreciated by investors if they shared them more frequently. I imagine that when details are not shared, operators may feel it's tedious or unnecessary to share with investors or they're not confident with what is going on? I'd love to hear how syndicators decide what to share and what not to share and how much details investors would like to know.