3 TIPS FOR MAINTAINING

A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR INVESTORS

How to Keep the “Know, Like, and Trust” Going

If you are a “passive investor” in a multi-family project, you know how important the communications from the managing partners are, don’t you?

When they don’t communicate for a while, your worst fears start to surface.  If they seem to be hiding things from you, you get really nervous.  

When they keep in touch and share information with you, you tend to relax.

And, if you are a “managing partner” in a multi-family project, you know how important building trust with your investment partners is.  Some of you have found out how hard it is to rebuild that trust once it is broken.

I know it is a cliché, but we invest with people we “know, like, and trust.”  

All three of these break down when we don’t maintain a good relationship.  This requires good communication.

We have 17 investors in one of our properties.  Each one of them is different.  They have different levels of knowledge about real estate investing and about operating an apartment complex.  They have different personalities.  Some are real estate investors like we are.  Some have full-time jobs.  Some are retired. 

If you are a syndicator, think through not only how you are going to manage the property, but also how you are going to manage your communications with your investors.  This means thinking of them as individuals.

We share 3 tips as a starting point for considering how you might plan on maintaining good relationships with your investors.

BUSINESS IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

Sometimes we can get caught up in the numbers or in property management or in other matters and forget about our investors.  

But, anyone who has been in business for a while has realized that business is really about relationships.

Start building strong, clear relationships with your potential investors before they invest.  You are forming a partnership, after all, even if they have a limited role in the day-to-day operations.  

Ask yourself a few questions.  What do you know about them?  Do they know you?   Can you get along with each other?  Is this a good fit for both of you? 

There are plenty of stories of people who were not a good fit. Sometimes bad fits turn into litigation.  At the least they can become quite uncomfortable.  It might have been better if you had not received their money.

I guess that is a tip.  Start early in building a “good fit” with your investors.

The SEC requires us to know who our investors are.  For non-accredited investors we must also discern whether or not a particular offering is an appropriate investment for them.  We also assist them in seeing if this fits their investment experience and goals.

Right now we are building relationships with some people we don’t know very well.  We are taking the time for them to get to know us.  We are making a decision together if investing would be a good fit for us.

THREE MORE TIPS

Here are three more tips.

TIP 1.  BE REGULAR.

Be regular in your communications with your investors.

During the due diligence period, while you are raising money, keep in constant communication.  Make sure they know what the path is to completing their investment. 

Produce and walk through with them any investment documents to make sure they understand their investment.

Communicate clearly the timeline and the process for wiring money.  Let them know where you are in the process as you move toward closing.

And after you have closed, communicate frequently and well.

We find a way to communicate monthly – often in the form of an “investor update” sent to our investors.  When we missed the monthly communications we heard from our investors.  They wondered what was happening.

Some operators communicate quarterly.  Some have online portals so investors can get recently posted information about the property and the investment.

The tip here is to be regular.

TIP 2.  DISCLOSE FULLY

Don’t hide anything from your investors.  That is putting this second tip in the negative.

The positive statement of this tip is to be transparent with your investors.  Be honest with them.  Communicate “the good, the bad, and the ugly” as they say.

And be timely in your communications.

We want our investors to hear news about their investment from us, not from someone else.

TIP 3.  ADD VALUE

A third tip is to find ways to add value to your investors.

We provide periodic conference calls with our investors.  We like the open communication and the ability to answer questions.

We encourage our investors to get in touch any time, to ask questions, to share concerns.

Last year, we sent some homemade cookies to our investors for the holidays.

Can you think of other ways you can add value to your investors?

CONCLUSION

Business really is all about relationships, whether between you and your employees, you and your customers, you and your suppliers, or you and your investors.  

Give your relationship with your inventors the attention it requires and you may have them as investors for life.  Let the relationship get sour and they might tell their friends.  And your money partners may dry up completely, or worse.

We hope these tips will prove helpful to you.

LET’S GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER

Attune Investments provides a better return for our investors.  And we make a positive impact in people’s lives and in our world.

If you want to learn more about how others are investing with us then we invite you to join our club and request a conversation with us.

Through the power of a syndication partnership with other investors like you, working with managing partners who are experienced in managing apartment complexes, you can own multifamily assets.  

Or you can choose to loan money, get in with a clear return, and get out earlier.  If you haven’t already subscribed to our BLOG, you can increase your knowledge and comfort with this asset class by subscribing now.  It’s free.  We publish an article every week.  SUBSCRIBE HERE

And take one more step. Become a member of our ATTUNE INVESTORS CLUB in which you have more personal access to us.  JOIN HERE

After you join, schedule a call with one of us and we can get to know each other better and answer your questions.  We are required by the SEC to build a relationship with you before we can share any specific investment opportunities.  So JOIN TODAY.

You can also find us on Facebook at OUR ATTUNE INVESTMENTS FACEBOOK PAGE.

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