So what kind of sponsoring broker should I work for?  

With this being your first syndication I would try and find an experienced deal sponsor to partner with.

The pandemic ignited a boom in a sweat equity strategy known as multifamily syndication, where investors pool their money to purchase apartment communities, and a sponsor manages the property’s rehab business plan and oversees daily operations.This year, a leading equity crowdfunding site conducted what’s believed to be the largest-ever survey of individual real estate investors in order to gauge their appetite for investing in a pandemic.

Way more hassle than it's worth.I've got a couple emails out to a few firms just to give it a shot but if, as you say, the costs of retaining a licensed IAR are anything but very low, my odds are low.For the benefit of those reading in the future, I'll give a bit of background: I confused not needing a sponsor to take the test with not needing an RIA to hang my license under to be officially licensed.

We do a lot of social media networking and we speak with sponsors and investors daily from all over the world honestly.

I would recommend attending some training sessions organized by the local realtor association with which you plan to align yourself with to help network with the local agents and familiarize yourself with the local loan officers in the area (these events are usually sponsored by the local lender branches) and the start to finish process in the RE transaction.

There are markets that are seeing massive growth, which therefore you could call "a better market", however at the end of the day the grass is greenest where you water it.I'd recommend building those broker relationships 1-by-1 or invest passively with an experienced sponsor team to get access to other markets outside of your area.  

However, for the majority of DST deals, from the largest sponsors, there are solid returns and cashflow historically. 

Underwriting is a good angle because most sponsors don't like doing it.

Property was owned by investor group, met deal sponsor/syndicator at the right moment.