I've been looking at a lot of syndications recently and I've been surprised by the number that are in places like Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

Learn as much as you can so you avoid big surprises.

Granted, the listing agent/owner should be able to paint a very clear picture of what you can expect to see as far as the condition of the unit so there aren't any surprises that kill the deal after the contract is signed.

@Jason HirkoThey are surprisingly easy to spot.Can't prove income "self employed" and can't provide tax returns or 3 mos worth of bank statements.

And sometimes that will result in an expensive surprise like I did a few years ago.

Their answer may surprise you! 

So I haven't been on here in a while and was very surprised to see this post was still receiving responses.

The student housing community I worked for required all tenants to have a minimum of 100K liability and you'd be surprised at how many times we had to use their policy for some sort of damage to the property (i.e. flooding, fires, etc.).As far as rent payments, I would recommend using Venmo.

Then I received a surprise bill with this message."

The place was a bit cleaner than usual- surprise!