Realty411 Magazine A Spotlight on Charles and Lena Sells | Page 23
Investing in
Syndications
for Totally
Passive
Income
By Kathy Fettke
I
t was a learning experience that
opened a whole new door to
passive investing for our group
of investors. Back in 2010, a long
time developer asked if I could raise
$3 million to buy a foreclosed
subdivision in Portland, Oregon. It
was worth about $15 million.
At the time, I had been helping
California investors find outofstate
foreclosures. Pooling money to buy
into a deal was something totally
new for me, and our Real Wealth
Network members.
I told the developer that our
investors were getting 15% to 20%
returns from singlefamily rentals,
and to sell his deal, it would have to
provide similar returns. He agreed
and offered a 15% preferred return
plus 15% of the profit.
I went to work and spread the
word to some of our high net worth
investors. In just one day, we had
commitments for the entire sum of
$3 million.
It wasn’t just a matter of
salesmanship. These sophisticated
investors were able to make a quick
decision because they knew how to
analyze the deal.
Here are the main considerations:
1. Management This developer
had a 40year track record of
success. He had been through
four economic downturns, and
was “the guy” banks called to
unload their REO’s.
2. The Deal We were making
money on the “buy.” This
subdivision consisted of 27
riverfront townhomes that were
70% complete. We only needed
to finish out the interiors.
3. Location The project was
located in Portland’s trendy Pearl
District. There were plenty of
foreclosed condos in downtown
Portland, but they did not compare.
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4. Structure The developer did not
take a fee. Instead, his pay would
come from the profits. Investors
would receive a preferred return
of 15% annualized, which means
they get paid first. This
incentivizes developers to stay
on time and on budget as cost
overruns or delays come out of
his profit.
5. Passive Income While
landlording is somewhat passive,
it can still be timeconsuming.
Syndications, like REITs, are
completely managed by someone
else.
Understand the Tax
Consequences
How did this deal turn out? Our
Portland investors earned more than
22% IRR during the worst part of
the Great Recession. While this is
great, a few people were surprised at
the tax consequences because they
hadn’t consulted with their CPAs
ahead of time.
The I.R.S. treats each home sale
as a taxable event. Yet, we were
reinvesting our profits to finish the
remaining units. This created a
“phantom” tax for investors
meaning they had to pay tax before