All Forum Posts by: E. C. "Stony" Stonebraker

Raising capital is tougher than most people realize.  If you can present to them a typical deal that you plan to acquire, investors will be more likely to listen to you if they think it is the kind of deal that is safe and achievable.  Just keep networking and building your potential investor base one at a time.  Most likely, it will take longer than you think and you can then find a deal or join another sponsor's deal with a GP interest for your self.

The obvious answer is you have to raise your local and online profile so others know what you do.  

1. Attend local events where your target audience is likely to attend.  Check local newspapers, business journals, economic development commission, chamber of commerce, etc. to find these events.

2. Attend REIA events where you might find one or more HNW partners to help you through the first deal or two, or more. Investors also attend these events.

3. Connect with others and post on social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.  Do this regularly.

4. To build your business, create a webpage and post educational articles, blog posts, etc. to help when investors are searching to invest in real estate.

Kwame, those are a few key steps and as you grow, you'll refine this list and develop more details as you learn from others.  Good luck to you!

@John Paulus, you might also check out the book and free UW model by Rob Beardsley of Lone Star Capital on his website (www.lscre.com)

@Jensen Escobar, the best way to learn is by doing, of course.  I'm not sure how you are learning, but one good source is a video underwriting course from an online school like Udemy.  I like some courses by Symon He, but there are plenty of others you should check out to see if you like them.  Another option is to buy the book "The Definitive Guide to Underwriting Multifamily Acquisition..." by my friend, Rob Beardsley.  He has a free underwriting model, too.  See https://lscre.com/the-definiti...     Good luck to you!

@Christian Walker, Taylor recommended two of the best books.  Fairless' book (Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book) teaches you how to go about putting a syndication together with all of the tasks that need to be done.  Kim Lisa Taylor's book (How to Legally Raise Private Capital...) will keep you out of trouble with the SEC and it is important to follow her guidelines.  

While Kim addresses raising capital in her book, she focuses on the legal and structural aspects with a lighter touch on marketing and so on.  I'd recommend you also read Hunter Thompson's (Raising Capital for Real Estate) which goes into more depth in marketing and developing relationships to build an investor base.  

Building your investor base is probably the first thing you should focus on since most everyone underestimates how long it takes to not just develop relationships, but to get to the point that someone is actually going to trust you with some of their life savings.

A final word: syndication is not a one person game, not is it something you read in a few books and then go out and do it.  It is a team sport.  Your best bet to gain experience, IMO, is to join another syndicator as part of their team to follow along and learn the process.  Perhaps volunteer to help, but you will learn this business much more quickly if you work on another team on multiple deals and read the books at the same time.  Good Luck!!

@Kyle Curtin, if you haven't already read Joe Fairless' book, I highly recommend you do it.  It is very thorough and complete about multifamily syndications and will give you an excellent jumpstart.  It is the "Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book" available on Amazon, et al.  

Kyle, I started by investing as an LP and it was helpful, but I wasn't thinking about becoming active until later.  It did give me an appreciation for the seriousness of the syndication documents, a PPM, OA and SA, which are needed for a syndication.  For those you need an experienced SEC attorney.  As an LP, however, you are really on the outside looking in.

But if you know you want to learn the business, try to find a sponsor/syndicator who will let you volunteer to help the team out on a deal.  If they will let you follow them around and listen in on meetings, site inspections, etc., I think that would be more helpful.  You don't have to be part of the deal itself, if you can find someone.  Good luck.

@Ryan Dyess, good for you for looking for ways to learn, meet other investors and build a path for investing success!  The Jake and Gino group is an excellent conference for new investors.  The Dave Lindahl conference tends to have more experienced investors, but if you want to keep your educational path going, I wouldn't hesitate to attend both.  

Almost all investors we meet at these events are more than willing to answer questions, make introductions, and help anyone who is attending.  It's because this business needs people working together to be successful and every person you meet could be a person that rounds out an investment team and improves the team's chances of success.

We all started small or with limited knowledge and if it wasn't for meeting others at similar events, we wouldn't be as far along as we are.  Don't be shy to walk up to someone and just introduce yourself.  These events could be mistaken for learn how to network events.  And most events have online or physical ways to show others what is your primary interest so you can meet others with compatible interests.  

I'll be at the J&G and Lindahl events so be sure to catch me and say hi!

I see my link to the Anderson video that I referred to in my comments was deleted.  See the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PbAOuk0BeY&t=1061s