If you’ve invested in residential real estate before, you have some important, basic lingo like rental income, mortgage interest, and amortization under your belt. When you step into the world of commercial real estate, you’ll begin to see other terms, like “cap rate”, thrown around as if everyone inherently knows what that means.

It’s okay if you don’t know what a cap rate is or what it’s used for. It can be challenging to understand and hard to calculate. As a passive investor, you won’t have to do any of the hairy work to calculate cap rates, but it’s helpful to have a very basic grasp on what they are.

Keep reading to find out what a cap rate is, how it’s calculated, what it’s used for, and what you need to know about cap rates as a passive investor in a real estate syndication.

​Have you ever known a new parent? They likely have stashed packages of baby wipes everywhere.

In the purse, the diaper bag, multiple places in the baby’s room, in the master bedroom, in the car… it’s likely that anywhere she and the baby might be, a stash of baby wipes is near.

The purpose, of course, is to prepare for those unexpected moments that accompany having a new baby. That new parent might not know exactly what to expect, or when a surprise spit-up will happen, but they know to expect the unexpected.

Once you get wind of real estate syndications and you begin thinking about the possibility of investing passively in them, it’s natural to simultaneously have questions… lots of questions.

Investing in real estate is a big deal and you SHOULD have and ask ALL the questions. Furthermore, real estate syndications aren’t broadly popularized, so, not only will your friends probably not have any answers to your questions, but they likely will have no idea what you’re even talking about.

For this exact reason, it’s important you find a trusted, knowledgeable resource to get your questions answered and do plenty of your own research. In an attempt to make this easier on you, we’ve addressed 4 big questions today:

1. What types of properties can I invest in using syndications?
   
2. What risky downsides are there to syndications?
   
3. Where and how do I find syndication deals?
   
4. Can I invest in syndications online?

The answers to these 4 simple questions are going to clarify so much for you… we can feel it! Ready? Let’s dive in!

Whether or not you have a background in real estate investing, commercial or residential, is irrelevant.

There are just things you need to know about syndications that are different than any other type of deal you’ve likely been involved in or had exposure to.

Your grandpa owned a few properties? Cool.

Your dad used to flip homes for profit? Cool too.

Now you’re interested in approaching real estate a little differently? Awesome.

So, it’s natural to wonder about the returns, minimum investment requirements, taxes and more when it comes to real estate syndications. Today we’re going to address these 4 technical details:

• What are the returns like in a real estate syndication?
  
• What’s the minimum amount I can invest?
  
• Can retirement funds be used to invest in syndications?
  
• What about taxes?
  

​We love details too and commend you for digging into the not-so-surface elements of
this type of investment.