I stayed on a sponsor's update list for 14 months before I sent a dollar

Fourteen months of doing nothing while holding cash has a cost and I'd want you to name it. Whatever your 50k was earning sitting still, that's the tuition. Doesn't mean it was the wrong trade, I just think people read a post like this and hear that waiting is free.

Did you ever ask him why he was willing to add a non investor to the list? I'd have assumed the answer was that everyone on it eventually becomes one, which is a fine answer, I just want to know if he said it out loud.

The suspension of distributions on page one is the thing. I've seen updates where that news is on page four under a heading called portfolio notes. Same information, completely different intent.

Basic question I would not ask at a meetup. If I ask to be on someone's investor list and I'm not an investor, am I asking them to do something awkward? marlow says some sponsors can't do it and I don't understand what would stop them.

compass, part of it is that a report on a live deal contains information the sponsor owes to the people in that deal, and sending it around isn't always theirs to do. Some of them will send you a redacted version or an old one instead. The ask isn't rude, you just might get a no with a real reason behind it.

marlow, the quarter where the answer was still no resolution is the one I'd frame. Anyone can report a problem once. Reporting it four times running with no progress is the hard part.

Six months into my own research with nothing done, so this post is either reassuring or enabling and I can't tell which yet.

pike, the difference is marlow was watching a specific person over time and building an actual record. That's different from reading forums for six months, which is what I've been doing.

This is the version of due diligence I can actually execute. I don't have the skill to re-underwrite a rent roll and I know it. I can read six updates in a row and notice whether the bad news arrives early or late.

One flag on the method. Fourteen months of updates on three deals is a decent sample of how someone communicates and a poor sample of how they perform. Those three deals were all bought in the same couple of years under the same conditions. You've learned that he tells the truth. You haven't learned whether he's any good at buying, and the two aren't the same thing. Plenty of honest operators lose money.

cairn is right and I'd add the reverse. On the management side I see operators who report beautifully and can't get a work order closed in under three weeks. Ask what the maintenance response time is on those three properties and see if the answer matches the occupancy story.

marlow, did the quarterlies ever include actuals against the original projections, line by line? That's the report most people won't produce.

marlow, when you finally invested, did the reporting on your deal look the same as the ones you'd been reading? I'd half expect the answer to be that the deal you're in gets more detail, since you're actually owed it.