What to do with capital I raise?

[Ramsey Blankenship]

I am trying to learn how to raise capital. More so, I am trying to learn how to structure a deal so that I am not married to another investor for 15-30 years. I am a military man and many of my friends out here in San Diego have a respectable amount of capital saved up ($50k-$100K range) and they tell me "Ramsey, hopefully one day you will let us get in on a real estate deal with you." I do want to involve them however I am unsure of how to put THIER capital to work without being on a long term mortgage with them.   I understand the broad stroke differences between a Joint Venture (Partners own a percentage of the property) and a General Partnership (Investors provide private money loans at a locked in rate of return) however I am looking for exit strategies.  What is common for either strategy. 

Surely investors do not want to lock in their capital for 15-30 years. Should I be raising capital only to fund MY deals and eventually refinance to provide my investors an Exit - leaving me with the property. 

Should I raise capital to buy a performing asset in which I provide partners with a long term investment in which they own completely and I am compensated for structuring the deal as a general partner? 

Please post replies below however I want to jump on a call with someone who has done this before.

Thanks in advance! 

Ramsey

[Cara Lonsdale]

What you are describing sounds more like syndication.  Be careful as this treads into SEC issues.

A typical syndication deal has the initial investment, a refi before year 3 to pay investors back a majority of their investment, and usually a sale of the property at year 5.  This way, the investor's commitment is short term, so they are more likely to invest.

If you don't want to get into syndication (it's an expensive set up process), then the only way I see you involving your friends is for debt by allowing them to fund your deals as the lender, and you pay them interest.

Or potentially going in on an LLC together and pooling funds, but I think there stipulations on this too, like having equal profit % to the amount invested.

So, you will definitely want to speak with an attorney about the legal ways to accomplish your goal of investing with your friends.