10 Steps to Invest in a Real Estate Syndication (Step 6: Review and Sign the PPM)

The Private Placement Memorandum is an offering document, sometimes called a prospectus, offering circular, or PPM. The majority of early startups, real estate syndications, and emerging growth companies commonly raise money through what are called private placements.

A placement is simply a sale of equity ownership (or debt) in the company to private investors that become owners (or lenders) in the company. The reason they are classified as private is because the offer and sale of equity (a security) does not involve any public filing or registration of the security with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (โ€œSECโ€) and falls under an exemption to the registration requirement. 

Put simply, private placements are not available on the open market so not everyone has access to these opportunities. They are private transactions.

The PPM is a legal document prepared by an attorney and provided to prospective investors and its purpose is to ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ข๐ง๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐š๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ, ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐š๐ง๐ฒ, ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ, ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐š๐ ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ, ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ง๐š๐ง๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐œ๐ž, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ฌ, ๐š๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐š๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐œ๐ž๐ซ๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ค ๐Ÿ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ž๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ข๐ง๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ , 

The SEC and state regulators want to be sure that you disclose what is required and donโ€™t over-hype your company. The anti-fraud statutes state that you need to fully disclose all material information so that you are not defrauding or misleading investors.

The PPM is a very long legal document. It is recommended that you thoroughly review it with your attorney. If you don’t have one, try to review it completely to the best of your ability so that you fully know what you are getting into.

When the PPM is signed, you have officially committed to the investment. However, you are not 100% in yet until you complete the final step, wiring the funds.

10 Steps to Invest in a Real Estate Syndication (Step 5: Subscribe To The Deal)

Once you have reviewed all the specifics of the deal, attended the webinar and received answers to your questions, itโ€™s decision time.  Are you going to move forward?

Only you can decide if a particular project aligns with your individual investing goals, but in the event that it does and youโ€™d like to subscribe to the deal, the next step is the paperwork.  

First, you will need to sign up for the investor portal to review the documents and sign the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM). Once you have committed to a deal, the sponsorship team will send out an email with instructions on how to create a portal account so you can access the PPM.

Many syndicators use a secure online dashboard that keeps track of your investments and documents. It’s an easy way to communicate with the general partners, be kept up to date on the status of the property and manage your transactions and distributions as well. 

The portal also houses many of your important documents, such as the OM, PPM, bank wiring instructions, K1 or other tax documents.

You can also set up whether you would like to receive your distributions via direct deposit or a check mailed to you.  In the case of direct deposit, you can use the portal to directly link your bank account so your distributions get automatically deposited.  

Transparency is important with any investment and this dashboard is a great way to see your money in action from the start to end of the investment.

10 Steps to Invest in a Real Estate Syndication (Step 3: Evaluate Potential Opportunities)

[๐๐„๐– ๐ƒ๐„๐€๐‹ ๐€๐‹๐„๐‘๐“]

After you sign up for an investor club list, when a deal is under contract and open to limited partners, you will likely get an email titled [NEW DEAL ALERT].

Most operators will schedule a follow up webinar or Q&A session so this is your first opportunity to review a general overview of the deal.

Here are some factors to consider:

๐™‡๐™ค๐™ค๐™  ๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ก๐™ค๐™˜๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ

– Is it an area that has great population growth and job/economic diversity?

– What kind of neighborhood is it in?

– Is it close to any employers?

– Is it convenient to shopping, grocery, restaurants, entertainment, etc?

๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™™๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™ฅ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฉ๐™ฎ?

– Is it a light value add?

– Is it a heavy lift?

– What’s the business plan?

– Are we looking to increase rents? If so, by how much and can the market support the increase?

๐™’๐™๐™ค ๐™–๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ก๐™š๐™–๐™™ ๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™ค๐™ง๐™จ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฌ๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™™๐™ค ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ฎ ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™™๐™š๐™–๐™ก?

– What is the track record of the general partners?

– How many of their previous deals have gone full cycle & did they hit their projections?

– Why made them pursue this particular deal?

๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™–๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ง๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฃ๐™จ? ๐™ƒ๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™๐™ค๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ข๐™š?

– Is there a preferred return?

– When will distributions start & how often will they be received?

– What is the hold time for the project?

๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™–๐™ง๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ง๐™š๐™ฆ๐™ช๐™ž๐™ง๐™š๐™ข๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™จ?

– Is this deal open for both accredited and non-accredited investors?

– What are the minimum/maximum investment amounts?

– Are there different classes of investors with different return structures?

๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ข๐™š๐™ก๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š?

– Is there an investor webinar?  

– When to sign the PPM?

– Where and when to wire funds?

– When is the closing?

๐™„๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ข๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™จ๐™ช๐™ข๐™ข๐™–๐™ง๐™ฎ ๐™™๐™š๐™˜๐™  ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™‹๐™‹๐™ˆ ๐™–๐™ซ๐™–๐™ž๐™ก๐™–๐™—๐™ก๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ง๐™š๐™ซ๐™ž๐™š๐™ฌ?

If not at that moment, when will it be issued?

These are some of the key things you’ll see on a new deal alert. It’s basically the first communication that goes out that there’s a deal on the horizon. Sometimes in the first email, you will get the opportunity to “soft reserve”. You aren’t committed to the deal at this point, but you are just saving your spot since some deals can fill up in just a few hours.

Be sure to check out the additional blogs in this series to see all 10 Steps to Invest in a Real Estate Syndication.