The 51 Responsibilities of the General Partnership in Syndications

Whether you are a passive investor who is interested in learning more about the apartment syndication process or an active investor who is interested in becoming an apartment syndicator, understanding the responsibilities of the General Partnership (GP) is vital.

Passive investors should have an idea of what the GP does and how the responsibilities are split up between the members of the GP in order to qualify the syndication team prior to investing. In other words, is the GP implementing the syndication process properly and in its entirety and are the responsibilities broken up based on the unique skills and background of each member of the GP?

For obvious reasons, understanding the responsibilities of the GP is even more important for active investors who are interested in becoming apartment syndicators. First and foremost, by understanding the main responsibilities of the GP, an active investor can determine which roles they are capable of fulfilling and which roles they will need to have covered by a partner or partners.

I’ve broken the main tasks of the GP into three categories: (1) pre-contract, (2) contact-to-close, and (3) post-closing. Not every single GP will implement every single one of these tasks. However, these are the tasks implemented by the most successful GPs. When applicable, I will provide links to other blog posts and Syndication School podcast episodes that go into more details on a specific task.

Here are the 51 main responsibilities/tasks done by the most successful general partners in apartment syndications:

Pre-Contract Phase

1. Select potential target investment markets
2. Evaluate potential target investment markets
3. Select 1 to 2 potential target markets
4. Create a website
5. Create a company presentation
6. Define a target audience for a thought leadership platform
7. Create and grow a thought leadership platform
8. Create an in-person meetup group
9. Create a Facebook group and/page
10. Find, interview, and select a property management company
11. Find, interview, and select a commercial real estate broker/s
12. Find, interview, and select a commercial mortgage broker or lender
13. Find a business partner
14. Find an accountant who specializes in apartment syndications
15. Find a real estate attorney
16. Find a securities attorney
17. Find a loan guarantor
18. Define the roles and responsibilities of each member of the GP
19. Set investment criteria for deals
20. Set GP compensation structure
21. Set Limited Partner compensation structure
22. Create list of investor emails in Mail Chimp (or other mass email sending service)
23. Find passive investors
24. Build relationships with commercial real estate brokers
25. Subscribe to commercial real estate brokers’ on-market email lists
26. Implement marketing strategies to generate off-market deals
27. Underwrite deals
28. Submit LOI and negotiate PSA

Contract-to-Close Phase

1. Perform due diligence on the deal
2. Create an investment summary
3. Announce new deal to investor list
4. Perform new investment offering conference call or webinar
5. Send conference call or webinar recording to investors
6. Create legal documents and send to investors
7. Create LLCs
8. Ensure passive investor money is transferred
9. Set up operating bank accounts
10. Secure financing
11. Close on deal

Post-Closing Phase

1. Create investor guide
2. Notify investors of closing
3. Send monthly recap emails to investors
4. Send quarterly financials to investors
5. Send K-1 tax documents to investors
6. Answer incoming questions from investors
7. Oversee property management company
8. Weekly performance call with property management company
9. Frequently analyze competition to set rents
10. Frequently analyze the market to determine when to sell
11. Ensure the correct distributions are sent on-time
12. Oversee the sale of the asset

These are the 51 main responsibilities of the GP in apartment syndications.

If you are a passive investor, you can use this list to generate questions to ask the GP about their business plan, who does what, and why that person has been assigned that responsibility.

If you are someone who is in the process or interested in starting an apartment syndication business, you can use this list to understand what you need to do to create a successful business and to assign each role to a member of the GP based on their unique skills and background.