In today’s quick tip article, we will demystify the fees you may encounter in a real estate syndication. Not all of them would apply to an investment opportunity. Nevertheless, it may be helpful to be aware of most.

Acquisition Fee (2-5% of purchase price) – typically paid to the General Partners (GPs) at the close. However, in some scenarios, some GPs may choose to invest the proceeds in the deal or may delay collection of the fee until a certain Limited Partner (LP) return is achieved. GPs would often review many deals before they find the one where the numbers make sense. This process will often entail additional expenses, such as travel, earnest money deposits gone hard on a deal they ultimately chose to walk away from, diligence reports/reviews on a deal that did not move forward, etc. The acquisition fee partially compensates GPs for that effort and the aforementioned out-of-pocket costs.

Asset Management Fee (1-2% of effective gross or of net income) – typically paid out of the monthly cash flow. It compensates the GP for the time and effort involved in actively managing the asset to ensure execution against the original business plan progresses as scheduled.

Construction Management Fee (5% of rehab budget) – for properties that may require more work to turn around in a short period of time, it serves to compensate the GP during that transition period for managing contractors, leasing efforts, and the property manager. Usually, during that transition period, the GP will not be collecting other fees.

Refinance Fee (1-2 of the loan amount) – typically paid at the close of the refi. It compensates the GP for managing the loan refi process, which would include soliciting proposals, evaluating and selecting the optimal refi terms, working with the lender and property manager to provide the needed information to complete the refi, and coordinating post-close activities related to returning of capital to the LPs.

Loan Broker Fee (1-2% of the loan amount) – typically paid at close and designed to compensate the mortgage broker for the work put in to solicit the best financing terms and position the deal for success to the ultimate lender.

Guarantor Fee (1-2% of purchase price) – typically paid at close and designed to compensate the guarantor for putting up their personal balance sheet behind the deal. The guarantor may or may not be involved in the day-to-day operations. Therefore, they would want to be extra comfortable with the operators’ ability to execute before signing the dotted line with their name. If the deal was to go bad, their name would be on the line.

Disposition Fee (1-2% of the sale price) – typically paid at close/sale. It compensates the GP for the work put into preparing the property for sale and coordinating the sale to completion.

Should you have any questions or want to learn more about real estate investing or for an overview of our target markets, please reach out to info@dbacapitalgroup.com.

Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute legal, accounting, tax, or individually tailored investment advice. Past results do not represent or guarantee future performance.