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Investing In Private Equity Funds For Real Estate
As with all investment articles on this site, I’ll just warn that I’m not an investment professional, and this should not be taken as advice.
In my recent monthly status I mentioned that I’ve begun a new experiment in my ever growing portfolio of alternative investments. Before I go into the details, let me explain how I got here.
Several months ago, I began a partnership with a local real estate investor who was seeking money to purchase a distressed house. I invest the money, she does the work, we split the profits. An distressed house is now a livable one, and a family gets a beautiful new home right next to the elementary school. Everybody wins.
I like this idea, but there are reasons why I may not want to increase my investments in it. For example, on this project we estimated that renovation expenses would be $33K. It was closer to $40K. We assumed 4-6 months to sell the house around $140K, but we don’t know what will really happen (currently we’re listed at $145K after 2 months). Also, it’s in my partners best interest to hold out for full price, while I would gladly take a smaller profit since it’s my money that’s tied up (her ROC is infinity, whether it sells today or it sells 5 years from now). Don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy with our partnership so far, but as I look to scale my investments I may want a better situation.
This desire led me to look at private hard money lending. Hard money lending is when private investors lend money at high rates to a real estate investor looking to rehab a home. Rates generally range from 12-15%, with some upfront points paid out (usually 2-3%) and the loans are generally good for 6-12 months. All these variables change based on region, market, etc… The loans will usually cover about 70% of the ARV (after repair value), so the home acts as a solid collateral. If the loan is defaulted, you get the house at roughly a 30% discount. This all looked good, so I did more research. I talked to a woman I found on biggerpockets.com who has been doing this for 20 years, and has been very successful. It was all great except for one thing: doing it right will take a lot of work. Work that I don’t have time for right now. I would want to meet with prospective borrowers, view their house and plans, look at comps, get references, meet with a lawyer and draft up contracts, and more. It all sounded really fun, but also very time consuming.
Finally, this led me to the discovery of private equity companies that do hard money lending on a larger scale. They usually charge a 2% management fee, but they cover all the work I described above. They work with borrowers and build long-term relationships, they study the local real estate market, they work with the lawyers and have established contracts. And above all else, they offer instant diversification that I wouldn’t be able to get as a small-time hard money lender because they pool in millions of dollars across multiple investors like me.
After some online research and asking around with a few local real estate investors, I found a private equity LLC that I decided to invest in. Here are the business details:
The fund lends at a 14% rate. They will lend up to 70% of ARV, and they charge 4 points up-front. The term is for a maximum of 9 months, with no early payment penalty. The fund pays it’s investors 8% preferred dividends, the manager gets paid 2%. The remaining money after paying all fees (lawyer fees, etc) then get paid out to the investors above and beyond the preferred dividend at 8%.
As an investor in the fund, I have to purchase a minimum of $25,000, and can reinvest in $5,000 increments. The fund will pay me 8% APR on a monthly basis. This is a preferred dividend, which means I get paid first, even before the fund manager. Every six months, all outstanding profits beyond the 8% (my payout) and 2% (fund manager’s pay) are given out to the investors (me). Over the past 5 years that this LLC has existed, the total payout has hovered around 12% APR with very little volatility. I think most people will agree that 12% with little volatility is a nice return.
As with any investment, there are benefits and risks. Let’s explore those.
The benefits:
- High Return on Investment
- Unlike REIT’s, the fund value will not move up or down based on the Federal Reserve interest rates. So volatility is low
- Short term loans are not heavily dependent on the local real estate market
- The loans are backed by a physical house worth more than the loan itself (70% ARV). Leins are always in first position, so a default means the house belongs to the fund, and in many cases this actually increases profits
- The private equity fund leverages the experience of a RE investor with 20 years of experience in REI, specifically in the local market (Denver metro area)
- The fund diversifies your investment across dozens of outstanding loans, with a smaller minimum investment than you could achieve as a private money lender
- Investment is mostly liquid. If I decide I want out tomorrow, they will give me my money back in full as soon as they have the capital. In most cases, this is immediate
- Both the investor and borrower are making money on the deal. The neighborhood looks better, and some family gets a beautiful new home that was previously unlivable, rather than having a cheap new house built deeper into suburbia. It’s good for my investing soul.
The risks:
- Default by borrowers – The equity fund loans very conservatively at 70% ARV, with a first lien and a deed of trust. This reduces the likelihood and impact of a default. However, multiple defaults could result in the fund owning several houses and reducing ROI. A loss is unlikely.
- Reduced demand for rehab loans – If no one wants to borrow the money, then it’s earning 0% interest. If this happens, the equity firm will hold a meeting with investors to consider lending in new markets, reducing interest rates, or returning money to investors.
- Too much demand for rehab loans – The private equity company I chose has a very high reputation in the REI market. If they don’t have enough funds to meet the needs of borrowers, they will lose reputation. If this happens, the company will open an additional offering and raise additional funds. This risk, and the one above, require a good balance.
- Mismanagement – If the fund manager just sucks at what he’s doing, then he’ll give out bad loans to bad RE investors, and returns will drop. Or, if he takes more investment money than he can keep active, then returns drop. This is why I chose an established fund, and one that came with independent references.
- Taxes – Not really a risk, but taxes are at your marginal tax rate rather than qualified dividend rates or capital gains rates. This would kill my profit since my income is still high, which is why I invested inside the shelter of my SDIRA
I’ve started out with an initial investment of $40,000. This means my preferred payment will be paid out monthly at $267/month. If the fund achieves it’s goal of paying investors 12% APR in total payout, then that will result in $400/month. I will likely increase my total investment to $60,000 over the next few months and perhaps as high as $100,000 by the end of the year if things continue to go well.
Anyone out there involved in a similar investment? I’m sure I’m not the only one that would like to hear about your experiences.
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Ah yes, I forgot to cover this.
You are correct, sort of. Except for Rule 505 of Regulation d (also called 505D). This allows a private placement company to have up to 35 non-accredited investors as long as they limit the overall funding to $5M and provide a certain level of paperwork to the non-accredited investors.
Basically, the SEC is trying to watch out for the less wealthy investors from getting scammed. I guess they assume wealthy investors are smarter? At least, that’s the only conclusion I was able to come up with.
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#3 written by bdub 1 month ago
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Good question. When I wrote the article, I started out with a general focus on private equity, but ultimately ended up on my specific investment. And for my specific investment, I had done quite a bit of research to avoid such scams.
For general private equity funds, all precautions should be taken. Including the verification of the legitimacy of the business and especially that its not a ponzi scheme.
As for my particular investment, I did do some research to investigate the business.
1. I talked to an RE investor who had received loans from the company for several years. If this were a ponzi scheme, they wouldn’t be wasting money actually giving out legit loans.
2. My partner in my own RE investment had not used the company, but she had 3 peers who had used them over the years. Again, this indicates it’s not a ponzi scheme.
3. As a 5050D investment, they are limited to $5M in investments. A ponzi scheme requires long-term exponential growth in investments to succeed, but a limit at $5M would be a quick path to failure.
4. I checked and found that I could have received a loan from the company myself as a RE investor on a new house at 15% interest. So if the investors in #1 and #2 above were fake, this covered that concern.
All this indicates that it’s a legit business. I will concede that it’s still possible that its an elaborate and complex scheme to trick investors like me, but based on my research, it’s not. I’m OK investing 4% of my total assets on any small risk that I’m wrong.
With all that said, it’s completely possible that similar investments in private equity could be scams and all precautions should be taken.
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12% returns over the last 5 years really is impressive. I think my biggest concern would be trusting the fund manager to lend to the right individuals, even if the ARV is limited to 70%. With that said, though, I can see the advantage of this fund as a way to get involved in the real estate market without dealing with pesky renters that wreck your property. I’ll be curious to hear how this goes for you, and of course copy you if it is successful and I can get in as a non-accredited investor.
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very interesting post here, BNL. I’d be particularly interested in hearing more about your experiences with the individual rehabber.
I think there is great potential in renovating derelict houses these days and, as you say, it is good for the soul. A house gets a new life, a neighborhood improves, a family gets a nice place to live and the investor makes some money.
Since I have neither the time, interest or skill to DIY, I’ve had my eye out for an ambitious person to back. But that, as you point out, has its risks.
While it sounds appealing, and doesn’t it just always, private equity LLCs are too often cesspools of fraud. Especially as a robust market begins to turn and the managing partners try to keep up.
Hope you’ll continue to keep us posted. Good luck!
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#12 written by jump 1 month ago
Nice article!
I’ve experienced similar situations with rehabbing…couple thoughts. Even by owning the property, you still have to keep up with lawn maintenance, keeping it clean, utilities, and property taxes. That can eat into ROI pretty quickly while sitting for months on the market. It almost sounds like your partner needs a little more skin in the game. Overruns on costs and delays on selling mean 100% more to you than her (you already alluded to this). If you have to drop to $130-135k to sell, minus selling costs, split the profit, capital gains, you’ll be down to around ~5-6%. The private equity gig sounds like a more lucrative route. Potentially less stressful if the returns are steady.
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Good post. I’ll keep up with this and see how it turns out. I’m a bit leery about investing with a company like this. From above, I see that you did a lot of work checking them out and that’s good. It seems a small company like this can go bad pretty quickly though. How long have they been in business? $400/month on 40k is quite nice.
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#15 written by Matt 1 month ago
Interesting post, thanks. I would also be interested in doing some of my own research on the company you are using, if you would divulge. What made you choose Denver? Because you live there? Have you thought of any others around the country? Phoenix comes to mind, and maybe Chicago if you are feeling risky or altruistic.
Also, I assume this entire $100k is coming from your SDIRA? Do you plan on tapping into that money with 72t, or just wait until the government retirement age?
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Hi Matt,
I chose this company not because of the Denver market (although my understanding is that it’s a decent housing market) but rather because I was able to talk to RE investors that actually used the company to borrow money. They were all very happy with the service.Currently my entire investment is coming from my SDIRA. As for 72t, I’m not sure yet. What I will probably do is live for a year or two off only taxable assets and see how things are going. If those assets are getting bigger despite me not working, then I’ll just leave my IRA alone. If it’s going down, then I’ll use 72t or some other method to start pulling a little of my IRA out.
An alternative is to pull from a Roth IRA, as long as the money has been in a Roth for at least 5 years. So what I might do is wait until retirement (lower tax bracket) and start transferring a little of my traditional IRA and 401K into a Roth, then in 5 years I can pull it out.
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#17 written by Philip 1 month ago
These are great articles. It’s been enjoyable reading the back catalogue too. I am amazed at how open you are and with the quality of information you are sharing. Thanks.
Quick question. Why not get the person you are working with to re-mortgage the house and pay you back your money thus leaving her with the risk of when a sale will happen?
I did my first private lending deal about 14 months ago (in the UK). It was for a property developer buying the freehold on a block of flats with the intention of splitting it into individual leasehold properties to push the value up by c. 30%. He had a track record for doing these deals. I lent funds secured against two of the flats at 65% loan to value (established by an independent valuer). The rate was 18% per year (1.5% per month) payable monthly. The idea was to be in and out within 18 months (with a backstop of the developer remortgaging the flats to release my funds should a buyer not be forthcoming). You can probably see the ‘but’ coming…
He went bankrupt and defaulted on the loan and I’ve since had to put the properties into receivership. One sold at auction in July and I’ve recovered the capital on it. The other also sold, but the buyer didn’t complete on it, so it’s up for auction again in February (I kept the deposit which offset some of the fees). In the meantime the solicitor, receiver, property management and auctioneer bills grow. I expect to come out with a small loss (c. £4k on £20k) but that really depends on the second property.
The learnings I’ve taken are as follows:
1. Examine all of developers portfolio and look for weak points. If the market turns south, how leveraged are they and what level of decline can they withstand? Ultimately this is why my guy went under.
2. In every deal the developer should ‘have some skin in the game’. If for no other reason than it motivates them to keep you afloat should other areas ‘go south’. This is similar to how venture capitalists look at deal structures.
3. I’ve since learned from two very high net worth guys who do private funds lending that they seek secondary security to cover any shortfalls. At the time I thought it was kinda mercenary, but now with a shortfall looming and my capital having been tied up for months, I think its sensible. If the developer can’t provide secondary security, he’s too close to going bust anyway.
4. If I do this again, I’m only going to do it by teaming up with the guys mentioned above. The level of funds I have doesn’t really give me negotiating power, whereas with their millions, they can dictate terms (higher rates of interest of c.24% to 36% per year, lower LTV’s for security and mandatory secondary security).
However, their deals are longer term (small housing estates, shopping centres etc.) and they face problems with money lock up when deals ‘go south’ too but the value of the security holds up better for them. The holy grail is to fund developers doing quick short term flips (buy below market value, renovate and sell fast) as you can see the money coming back quickly and then re-lend again.
Good work on finding that private equity firm. You get a lot done for a busy man! If I may be so bold as to offer some comments on the firm you are looking at:
1. Pooling the money will decrease individual developer risk, but you are still open to system wide risk (i.e. if real estate tanks, it tanks across the board). When markets ‘fall off a cliff’ is when most people want money out and funds freeze. I guess you have this covered to an extent by only allocating a certain amount of funds to this versus other investments.
2. Also worth remembering is that developers tend to default before a property has been finished so the 70% ARV won’t always protect you (unless you have other security). Does the firm have you covered on this?
3. Scams can never show you certified bank statements with money flows (loans out and money coming back in) whereas legit operations generally can. So may be worth seeing some paperwork.
I look forward to reading about how it turns out for you (hopefully better than for me!) and wish you luck for all your future endeavours!
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Thanks for such a well-thought reply, Philip. I try to provide some ideas to the readers, but it’s comments like this that pays in dividends.
Here are a couple of comments on your comments:
Quick question. Why not get the person you are working with to re-mortgage the house and pay you back your money thus leaving her with the risk of when a sale will happen?
[BNL] She has no reason to do this. Our agreement is that I fund the property at 0% interest, but that I do no work and get 50% of profits. This wasn’t a loan, it was a partnership. In hindsight, a hard money loan might be better. But I’m not giving up on her yet (I’m trusting to a fault).Examine all of developers portfolio and look for weak points. If the market turns south, how leveraged are they and what level of decline can they withstand? Ultimately this is why my guy went under.
[BNL] I need to learn from this. To be honest, I don’t think my partner is the best in the game. I suspect I can do better. At the same time, she has been completely open in communication and has been a good mentor. I’m grateful for this, but at some point I’ll need to ask for more. I’m not cut-throat enough to ignore this, however.In every deal the developer should ‘have some skin in the game’. If for no other reason than it motivates them to keep you afloat should other areas ‘go south’. This is similar to how venture capitalists look at deal structures.
[BNL] Agreed. She does have some skin in the game in that we split the profits and/or losses. However, she does not have motivation to sell quickly. I think I should have some small interest rate on the loan, so that there is not an incentive to hold on to the property forever.However, their deals are longer term (small housing estates, shopping centres etc.) and they face problems with money lock up when deals ‘go south’ too but the value of the security holds up better for them. The holy grail is to fund developers doing quick short term flips (buy below market value, renovate and sell fast) as you can see the money coming back quickly and then re-lend again.
[BNL]If I do this again, I’m only going to do it by teaming up with the guys mentioned above. The level of funds I have doesn’t really give me negotiating power, whereas with their millions, they can dictate terms (higher rates of interest of c.24% to 36% per year, lower LTV’s for security and mandatory secondary security).Pooling the money will decrease individual developer risk, but you are still open to system wide risk (i.e. if real estate tanks, it tanks across the board). When markets ‘fall off a cliff’ is when most people want money out and funds freeze. I guess you have this covered to an extent by only allocating a certain amount of funds to this versus other investments.
[BNL] 2 things. First, you are right. I’m only investing ~4% of my equity in this, so it’s not a big deal if it falls through. I admit this is a luxurious point of view to take. Second, I like risk. It’s what makes this fun.Also worth remembering is that developers tend to default before a property has been finished so the 70% ARV won’t always protect you (unless you have other security). Does the firm have you covered on this?
[BNL] True. But for this fund, they keep repair value in escrow and verify each major repair. This way, they don’t end up owning a property that is worth less than what they loaned.Scams can never show you certified bank statements with money flows (loans out and money coming back in) whereas legit operations generally can. So may be worth seeing some paperwork.
[BNL] Thanks for the advice. I’ll look into that. I got the past few years quarterly reports, but not certified bank statements.
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I’ve been reading your well written blog. Very interested in getting into real estate but residential landlording is tough while working full-time with international travel. I plan to do a little when I find a good manager. I am very interested in investing in a private equity fund for real estate. Can you share the fund you invested in?
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I have never heard of this type of investment for an individual – I just assumed it was locked up only for institutional investors.
If this particular fund has been that successful why mess with investors? Just use partnership/LLC money?
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#21 written by Nick 1 week ago
First time reading the blog.. good stuff. As an under 40 real estate investor, I’ve found residential rentals to be a solid semi-passive (or fully passive if using a prop. mgr) investment. The combo of cheap $, historically low RE prices, and high rental rates have driven me to purchase multiple single family rentals in solid neighborhoods. 10-14% cash on cash rental yield with solid upside. Even slight appreciation will bring large rewards in the years to come. Have you researched cashing out your investor partner and renting out the property for larger longer term gains?
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Thanks for the post. I’ve been trying to learn more about alternative investments, and in doing some quick research about private funds, it looks like the following limits apply to potential investors. Was this your experience as well?
“Because private equity and private real estate funds are not registered with the SEC, they can offer or sell securities to only certain types of individuals known as “accredited U.S. individual investors.” Accredited investors are defined as an individual with at least $1 million in individual or joint net worth or individual annual income of at least $200,000. Also included are couples with combined annual income of at least $300,000 for the past two calendar years, with the reasonable expectation that the income will continue in the current calendar year. Sales are also allowed to an
“accredited U.S. institutional investor,” which is defined as someone who has at least $5 million in investable assets.”