All Forum Posts by: Litan Yahav

Quote from @Demian Pack:

@Litan Yahav congratulations on developing Vyzer! 

It is exactly what I was looking for. I was very frustrated as I couldn't find any software that allowed me to track my portfolio and a traditional excel spreadsheet just did not do it, anymore.

Testing Vyzer as, as I write this.

Thanks Demian! This was totally built out of our own personal needs.. 
Let me know what you think, happy to hear any feedback you might have! Also happy to hop on a zoom call anytime, love meeting fellow passive investors like me :)

Quote from @Allan C.:

Quote from @Adrian Clapp:

@Allan C.,

I would say I am fairly proficient in Excel.  Tracking my RE Syndication investments in Excel is very time consuming since they all are on different timeframes, etc.  My spreadsheets work (for now) but I'm pretty sure there are better tools that would be more automated too.

Actually, I’ll ask a different question - what exactly are you looking to accomplish? It seems you’re stewarding performance on a monthly basis, but why not just look at performance on an annual basis or upon deal exit. I don’t see any value tracking syndication performance more frequently than on annual basis, and really it’s the full cycle that matters. 

I have a separate bank account that all syndication distributions flow to so that gives me one level of organization that makes it easy to track monthly or annual performance, but I honestly only perform a hindsight analysis after the deal has exited. I have preferred sponsors that I invest more with, but I still invest with several different sponsors to diversify risk and geography. Help us understand the end goal of your question. 

Yeah, that makes sense.
I think it depends on how much you depend or care about the ongoing passive income.

For me, it's all about keeping my passive investments - passive.
When I get a quarterly/monthly statement to my email, I don't want to even deal with it, trying to remember how much I invested, when I invested, how much cash I was expected to receive and if the current distribution makes sense

Even if I remember, a few weeks later I'll have to go through the whole process again trying to understand who transferred money to my bank account and for what.

But then again, I'm not an active real estate investor. My day to day is managing a company, and want to streamline my passive investments as much as possible.

Quote from @Adrian Clapp:

Hi.  In 2021 I invested in 15 different RE Syndications and was wondering how LP investors keep track of quarterly distributions and other performance metrics vs. what was originally presented in the original pro forma or updates.  Right now I am using a large excel spreadsheet but I was thinking someone must have developed a better system?  Thanks!

 Hey @Adrian Clapp and others! As someone who's invested in more than 30 syndications as an LP over the past few years I totally understand the "good problems" of tracking them all - That's the basis for why we decided to found a new startup and build Vyzer two+ years ago. 

Our objective is to help people like us automate as much of their finances as possible, specifically the more alternative and private investments. 

If I can help in anyway please don't hesitate to reach out! 
I'm also alway interested in hearing any feedback that comes up.

@Jim Pfeifer - Thanks for the mention! 

Quote from @Paul Moore:

@Litan Yahav. I tend to use those three terms interchangeably but some good points above make me want to rethink this. I also use the term Asset Manager almost interchangeably with these as well.

Yeah, definitely some interesting input here. 
I'm going to stick with Operator as the person/company in charge of the deal and the main GP - Their rep matters more than that of other co-GPs whose main job is to help raise money (referring to sponsors/syndicators that aren't the actual operator or asset manager)

Happy to share my 2cts as a pure LP investor (have never operated/syndicated/GPed a deal)... 

When I receive distributions from a deal, either ON or OF the capital I originally invested, I decrease my risk exposure to the deal (as @Evan Polaski mentioned). 

So if my initial investment was $100k and I received an accumulated amount of $40k back over time, my exposure at that point in time is $60k. Doesn't matter to me if the $40k was ON or OF capital, it's still money in the bank in my mind. 

Yes, there are different tax implications to each type of distribution, but that's a different discussion. 

Now the real question here is - What happens to future distributions if you've received return OF capital. 

I'll explain what I mean here:

Let's say there is an 8% annual pref or CoC return on the investment example above.
This means that originally I should receive $8k per year (8% on $100k, distributed every quarter). 

Now that I have received $40k return OF capital, do I get 8% on the remaining $60k? Or even more extreme - What happens if after a year I received my original $100k back as return OF capital. Do I get any type of annual distribution going forward? 

I've seen so many different approaches to this it's crazy.
As an LP, I think the fairest model should be for the GP to distribute the annual profit, after keeping some money in the bank for worst case scenarios, and distribute the rest pro-rata with the LPs (or based an agreed upon waterfall).

Just my 2cts, I'm sure the others might be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback and insights.

Yes, I agree that as an LP i'm just along for the ride and need to make sure the people/companies I invest with are credible. 
To summarize my take from the replies - What really matters at the end of the day is the operator - They have the most potential to make or break a deal for the long run. The sponsor/syndicator can help raise funds (debt/equity) and maybe advise on the deal, but the bottom line goes to the operator - in terms of reputation, management skills etc.

Really appreciate the input from everyone

So if I can reach an operator, why would I want to work with a sponsor or syndicator? Are they just middle men/women? 

I've been investing in RE and PE funds / syndications for the past 7 years. But I still feel like the terminology isn't clear when it comes to the titles of people I invest with. Would love for someone to shed some light on this to help clear things up for me (and hopefully people like me)

What's the difference between a sponsor/syndicator/operator and can any or all of them be GPs in a deal?

Thanks!

I'm a tech founder, turned passive investor.

After investing in 30+ syndications and PE funds (as an LP) over the past 7 years, my co-founder and I decided to build a startup to solve our own issues managing wealth (specifically our alternative investments). 

The main issue was that our passive investments were becoming more active than we wanted.

So we set out to build Vyzer for people like us. People who made money and decided to passively invest it, but still work hard staying on top of it all.

It's not just a dashboard, but rather a digital service that essentially acts as our virtual family office - It automates our workflow, analyzes performance, and has a ton of features in the road map to help make better decisions. 

Excited to be part of this community and would love to connect with like minded people.