Passive Multifamily
Real Estate Investing

A real estate syndication is a private partnership where a group of investors pool capital to acquire a property that's too large for any of them to buy individually. In a Willowdale deal, accredited investors contribute the equity, a commercial lender provides 65–75% of the purchase price as debt, and we operate the asset on behalf of the partnership.

The structure is straightforward: investors hold passive Limited Partner (LP) interests in an LLC that owns the property. We're the General Partner (GP) — we source the deal, raise the equity, sign on the debt, execute the business plan, and handle disposition. Investors receive cash distributions, K-1 tax treatment, and a share of the equity at sale.

Read the complete syndication guide →

Most of our offerings are limited to accredited investors. We occasionally accept sophisticated non-accredited investors on certain Rule 506(b) deals where SEC rules permit.

Under SEC rules, you qualify as accredited if you meet at least one of the following:

• Income: $200,000 in each of the last two years individually, or $300,000 jointly with a spouse, with a reasonable expectation of the same in the current year, or
• Net worth: Over $1 million, individually or jointly, excluding the value of your primary residence, or
• Professional credential: Hold a Series 7, 65, or 82 license in good standing.

For 506(c) offerings, verification is handled through a third-party accreditation service before you receive subscription documents. For 506(b) offerings open to sophisticated non-accredited investors, we conduct a separate qualification process in line with SEC requirements.

$50,000 per deal is the typical minimum for a Willowdale syndication, though specific deals may set a higher minimum depending on the offering structure.

Each investment funds a single property — not a fund or a blind pool. You see the deal, the underwriting, the business plan, and the projected returns before you commit, and you decide whether to participate on a deal-by-deal basis. There's no obligation to invest in any particular offering.

Plan on a 5–7 year hold. Multifamily syndications are illiquid by design — you cannot redeem early, and the LP interest is not freely transferable.

That said, most Willowdale business plans target a refinance event in years 2–3 of the hold, which can return a meaningful portion of your original capital while you continue to hold equity in the deal. Final disposition (sale of the property) typically happens between years 5 and 7, depending on market conditions and whether we've hit the deal's return targets earlier.

See how we think about exit strategies →

We charge three fees, and all of them are disclosed in the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) for each deal before you commit any capital. Importantly, all projected returns shown to investors are net of these fees — fees don't come out of the returns we project to you.

• Acquisition fee: 1–3% of the purchase price, paid at closing. This compensates the time and cost of sourcing, underwriting, and closing the deal.
• Asset management fee: 1–3% of monthly gross revenues. This covers the ongoing work of executing the business plan, overseeing the property management company, and reporting to investors.
• Equity split: Our share of the equity in the deal, typically 30% to the GP / 70% to LPs after a preferred return is paid. The exact split varies by deal and may include a "waterfall" structure where the split shifts in the GP's favor only after LPs have hit a target return.

Every fee is itemized in the PPM. If a deal's economics don't make sense to you after reading them, don't invest in it.

Yes. You can invest in our deals using a self-directed IRA, solo 401(k), qualified retirement plan, business entity, or a combination — in addition to investing as an individual.

The most common structure is a self-directed IRA held with a custodian that allows alternative investments (Equity Trust, IRAR, Quest, and others). The mechanics differ slightly from an individual investment — your IRA custodian signs the subscription agreement, and the deal funds wire from the IRA, not from your personal account.

A few things to talk to your CPA about before going this route: Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) implications for leveraged real estate held in an IRA, how distributions flow back to the retirement account, and whether a Roth or Traditional structure makes more sense for your situation.

Read our complete guide to investing in multifamily with a self-directed IRA →

We hold the asset and operate through the cycle. Unlike public market investments, you can't be forced to sell at the bottom — multifamily syndications are illiquid, which works against you for early exit but works for you in a down market because the GP doesn't face redemption pressure.

Three structural protections matter here:

• Class B & C workforce housing tends to be the most recession-resilient segment of multifamily. When the economy tightens, demand for moderately-priced rentals typically increases, not decreases — renters trade down from Class A, and would-be homebuyers stay renting longer.
• We underwrite conservatively to debt service coverage ratios that hold up in a stressed rent environment. A property only gets into a Willowdale offering if the underwriting still works under reduced-rent and elevated-vacancy stress scenarios.
• The properties we buy are already cash-flowing on day one. We're not betting on appreciation to make the deal work — current rents service the debt and pay distributions, and forced appreciation through value-add work is upside, not the base case.

That said, real estate is not risk-free, and total loss of capital is always a possibility. The full risk discussion is in each deal's PPM.

Read our analysis on multifamily during a recession →