I have a number of friends that believed in similar "highly safe" promotions by deal sponsors and are now deeply regretting the investment.

I have over 400 units and between my partners and I we have over 2k and I created an accelerator program to help, and partner if desired but one of the comments was you really don't need a sponsor for the debt in your case but possibly on operations but it's not a requirement, but if you want to check it out I'd love to work with you on accelerating your first and future acquisitions and sharing my learnings in the MF space. 

Historically (with some exceptions), there were two categories of syndicators: (1) The Sponsors who would raise "friends and family" equity and (2) Sponsors  who would raise capital from family offices,  pension funds, insurance companies etc. 

The best sponsors build their reputations and investor base on long-term performance and trust.

Sponsor is offering 2 options. 

I agree with you that if you are raising capital, you need to have other responsibilities in the deal, and you can't  get compensated for raising capital unless you have broker deal license.It can work if the sponsor who is running the deal is qualified, but unfortunately, people who purely raise capital can't vet a sponsor.Caution: If you're going to raise money for someone else's deal, have a conversation with a securities attorney.

I originally started working with my current brokerage specifically because the broker said she was more than willing to sponsor me later to get my own corporate license once I had the qualifications.

So I start with the sponsor first.

But the problem is none of their coaches can/will sponsor deals either.

Most times not only do you need to analysis the property(s) you’re investing in, you also need to evaluate the sponsor/manager.