All Forum Posts by: Mason Fiascone

This thread is packed full of insight, wow! Thanks @Asa Hunt for getting the conversation started. From what I see written in reply, the biggest risks are:

1) the syndicator themself (crooks, inexperience)

2) being over-leveraged and in a worst-case scenario not being able to pay the debt (or having to pay $15k out of pocket)

Market trends, end of cycles, even serious downturns at a macroeconomic level can cause LPs to lose money, but I think it still comes down to the above. If the syndicator is solid and has the right team (like @Ivan Barratt said, the PM is critical) and is not over-leveraging the property, then even a terrible downturn would not cause LPs to lose money, but would still hurt returns.

Asa, what is your position - syndicator/GP, investor/LP?

Hey @Account Closed, this was 2 years ago, I take it you're now 26 - what did you do with your $70k? Based on your profile, looks like some buy & hold single family and now multifamily - how many units in total?

I'm 24 and currently getting into multifamily syndication, am curious to hear what worked out for you and any advice you have looking back.

the calculator is a bit more for analyzing deals, but I think it could be helpful / repurposed for what you've written about in your latest comment.

 Yea of course - here's a link: http://www.themichaelblank.com/syndicated-deal-analyzer/
It's pretty great, and I know a bunch of syndicators that use it as well. Agreed - gotta stop the tail chasing! I can underwrite a 50 unit building in roughly 15 minutes on this thing. If it looks promising, I spend another 15-20 minutes vetting more.

I heard from my property manager that when they do monthly bug inspections, they bring along a contractor to walk the units and they will check every pipe for leaks because the water bill is often the highest! Easy solve right there. That plus some low-flow toilets/shower heads could make big water bill improvements. Some cities like Dallas even give away free low-flow appliances to encourage you to cut down on usage.

I've also heard of people doing incentive programs, whereby if the building overall has utility bills below a certain amount then the tenants receive a kickback in terms of a rent discount. Not sure exactly how this is structured but heard of some really strong improvements through implementation.

I'd ask around the area what other property management companies are doing as well!

Hey Garrett,

First off, seems like you've pegged some good markets there - and they're all over the US! Do you have any personal ties to any of the markets or any particular region of the US? In just about any market, most the work will be finding the right deal, so if you're going to spend a lot of time thinking about it, studying it, maybe even visiting, it doesn't hurt to have a personal reason to want to do all those things! Either a connection there, or maybe just the weather or pace of life.

Second, what are you investing in? I think that makes a big difference. If you're investing in 100+ unit apartment complexes, Fort Worth will be nearly impossible to find a deal. If you're looking at SFH or under 20 units, then Fort Worth is an amazing market for that, and you can find off-market deals flying under the radar of bigger investors.

Other than the two above, there are a TON of factors that can influence this decision - job growth, population growth, home structures, overall prices, average rents, tax friendly, law friendly, and so many more. I'd do an in-depth analysis of the Top 10 metrics you value, then just look at it based on which market scores the best!

I personally use a syndicator analyzer since I operate in multifamily, and after inputting the details you mentioned above - down payment, purchase price, debt/mortgage on the property, all expenses such as management fees, it would definitely tell you what your returns - cash on cash, ARR, IRR would be!

Maybe a little extra complex to make a syndication tool work for SFH, but I use Michael Blank's syndicated deal analyzer and love it. Super easy to use and has paid for itself for me.

PM me if you want to see screenshots or anything like that.

Love these recos and they're still relevant today! Just spoke with Milt and was very impressed and will plan to use him for future deals.

Just started using Airtable to keep track of all things for my Real Estate Investing. Love the tools and templates they already have (check out https://airtable.com/templates/real-estate for a lot of good templates, my favorite lately being https://airtable.com/templates/real-estate/expnDIz...). You can also upload .CSV docs if you already manage stuff in Excel. 

I'm still only on the free version and it took me about two hours to fully adjust to the system instead of Excel. If you're quick at learning a new tool, tired of Excel, need to collaborate with others and/or are a visual learner, I definitely recommend it!

Thanks Tyler! Glad to hear a unanimous agreement in Property Management - luckily I already have a lead for a suggested PM!