All Forum Posts by: Monica C.

What are the most passive passive income options? I'm wondering what are people's favorite passive income options and how that's been working out! 

My passive choices so far have been investing in syndications or lending money privately to flippers. Both required some work upfront to find people to trust and research their projects. But once the investments began, I felt I had little control and had to trust my investments were safe, so even a worry wart like me had to learn to let go a little and let others do their job. So far things have worked out for me and I guess the risk/time/effort vs returns is a question I constantly re-evaluate-- less passive and more control/more time/energy doesn't always result in higher returns ultimately, so trying to find balance. 

Would love to have others share their experiences with passive options! 

@Mike Dymski Great, thanks for sharing that! 506investorgroup seems like a great resource and I'll be looking to connect with Ian as well. 

@Paul Moore Oh I haven't heard of any of these but all around investing books are a necessity and Gene's book sounds interesting, will look it up, thank you! 

@Badri Malynur Thanks for your insight Badri! Yes the high entry point for syndications is not only a barrier for those with less capital but also a big chunk to put in one egg. That psychologically can be a big barrier for an investor who's used to diversifying and spreading risk -- I definitely would not do that in the stock market! I guess that's why one has to really trust the operators to feel comfortable in syndication investments. 

Have you been investing in these customizable funds? Do you mean like on REIT/crowdfunding sites or are these funds something different? I was told that offerings that we see on sites like fundrise may be inexperienced or not the best syndicators that may prey on inexperienced investors who don't have the ability to participate in syndications because of a lack of substantial capital and that capable syndication operators would not resort to posting on sites like that because they have a group of investors that trust them and they don't have to share a fee to the site. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

@Peter Schuyler Thanks so much for sharing Peter! I love the tracker and thanks for sharing your process. Yes, I wish the operators just told investors things like CoC return vs. projections because we calculate it anyway but it just creates more work for us. Also, that's a great point about the holding period. Hopefully the projects have budgeted to produce some sort of distributions from the start but I do understand sometimes it takes time before they have can, although if their projections were done right then it should be in line.

Thanks for all the details! 

@Sam Silverman Wow you've been super active the last 2 years! We also do note to investors that cash flow will most likely be lighter in year 1-2 as we stabilize with renovations and raising rents to market price. 

How were you able to connect on so many syndications? Just word of mouth? I'm curious as to how one finds reputable syndicators. 

@Richard Cumberbatch Oh haven't heard of that one but the title already sounds promising! thanks!

@Jamie Grubb Thanks for sharing Jamie, will add it to my list! 

@James Kojo Thanks for the reply James! Wow you've invested in quite a few! 

May I ask how you found so many leads? Was it just through word of mouth/networking? 

The monthly charts comparing actual vs pro-forma sounds awesome, I would really appreciate those too. Even being out of budget, that transparency is really valuable and not leaving investors in the dark! 

I haven't experienced an exit yet so have always wondered if they'll actually reach the projected IRRs or if in general they fall short. For the most part, have your investments overall hit the projected numbers? 

Thanks for sharing! 

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. 

@Alex Ramirez Thank you, will look that one up! 

@Steve S. I've seen people mention that one several times in the forums, definitely adding that to my list, thank you!

@William Costello loved rich dad, poor dad, and definitely adding handsoff investor to my list, thank you!