Asked five managers for a full realized deal list. One of them sent it.

I've been researching instead of buying for a while and I decided the one thing I could do without capital was ask hard questions. So I wrote a one page request and sent it to five managers raising funds in the $20M to $80M range.

The request was simple. Every deal since inception. Entry date, exit date, LP dollars in, LP dollars out. Include the deals that lost money and the deals still held, marked at whatever you think they're worth. No IRRs, because IRR depends on timing assumptions I can't check and dollars in and out don't.

Two never replied. Two sent back marketing decks with gross IRRs on selected deals, which is the same answer as no. One sent a spreadsheet with 14 deals, including one that returned 62 cents on the dollar in 2018 and one still held at cost since 2022 with a note explaining why they think cost is the right mark. He also called me to walk through the bad one before I asked.

I put in $20k, which was the smallest slot they'd take. First year distributions have come in at about 6 percent annualized against an 8 percent preferred return, so the shortfall is accruing rather than being paid, which is how it's supposed to work in the early years of a value-add fund while properties are being renovated.

What I'd keep: asking for dollars instead of percentages. It's a short question and the response rate tells you as much as the answer does.