I had some people ask me about my new venture and why I wouldn’t just invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) instead of learning the real estate syndication business.  It was such a great question I wanted to send out another email to everyone explaining the difference between the two.

Quick disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser and these are definitions as I interpret them. Consult your CPA or attorney for their own interpretations of these asset classes before making any decisions to invest.

A REIT is a company owning and usually operating income-generating real estate.  This can be anything from apartment buildings to data centers that are held in a portfolio which the public can invest in.  They share the income from the holdings as dividends to the shareholders as a stock does.  These are registered with the (Securities and Exchange Commission) SEC and can either be public or private. The income is taxed as regular income, doesn’t offer much in terms of capital appreciation and typically has high management and transaction fees.  REIT investments can be liquid and sometimes aren’t so it is good to find out depending on your investing strategy. They do offer good diversification in a personal portfolio and pay steady dividends.

Real estate syndication is a method approved by the SEC to raise capital from private individuals to buy large income-producing real estate assets. These can be large apartment buildings, self-storage companies or mobile home parks for example. These are put together and lead by a sponsor who underwrites the deal and puts all of the various pieces together. The pieces the sponsor will put together include finding the deal, securing financing, raising equity for the down payment from individuals and organizing the entire transaction. These are costly to set up so they make sense for large deals of $2MM and more.  An example of a deal is one where the purchase price is $10MM and the down payment required is 25% the sponsor would raise $2.5MM from investors. There are two types of SEC regulations for raising capital from individual investors, one for accredited investors and another for non-accredited.  For the sake of keeping this to a reasonable length, I’ll cover the differences later.

The major advantages of real estate syndications for individuals who invest in these deals for passive income are cash on cash returns from rental income (mailbox money), appreciation realized while owned, and asset depreciation tax benefits that are passed to the individual investors. Typically most if not all income realized by investors is tax-free.

Investors get monthly income from the rents generated as what we call “mailbox money” that is distributed according to the agreement between the sponsor and investor.  Most apartment building syndications look for value add opportunities. So they seek buildings that have differed maintenance can be upgraded and as a result market rents increase making the asset more valuable. Normally after this work is done there is a cash-out refinance where the investors often receive their full investment back and remain in the deal until it is sold. The property is normally sold after five to seven years and the major return on investment is realized at this time.  Returns can range widely and rarely are below fifteen percent and often much more.  The buyer of these properties often a REIT or an institutional investor.

Two of the major reasons I decided to learn this business. One is because the value of the real estate asset is derived by a method on which everyone agrees.  The second reason is because of the various ways you can make money with multi-family apartments. When I look at a house to flip I am guessing what price it will sell for after it is fixed based on my experience and by looking at comps. I am guessing how much the repairs will be, also based on my experience.  However, with income-producing assets the value is based on the income it produces so there is no guessing involved and I love that.  I am also a big fan of the three ways you can make money from participating passively in syndications, it is a very unique type of investing that I can talk about for hours so please reach out and ask more questions.