After you’ve officially placed an apartment syndication deal under contract and created the investment summary document that outlines the major highlights of the opportunity, the next step is to notify your database of investors about your new deal.
Here is how to create an attractive new deal email to maximize the number of investor commitments.
The purpose of the new deal email is to:
I recommend using an automated email service like MailChimp to create your emails as opposed to sending one-off emails to each of your investors. With MailChimp, you can create a professional looking email, upload every contact from your investor database, and send the email campaign to everyone.
The first thing an investor will see when they receive the new deal email is the subject line of the email. So, your subject line needs to convey why they should invest in the opportunity and grab their attention.
A bad subject line would be: “New Deal in Dallas, TX” or “Great Investment Opportunity.” These are too generic and not specific enough.
A good subject line would be: “Off-Market Opportunity Under Contract at 25% Below Recent Sales” or “Significant Value-Add Opportunity in A+ Market.” Both of these examples tell the investor why it is a good deal and grabs their attention.
At the top of your new deal email, you should include a picture or pictures of the asset. On our new deal emails, we actual create a collage of four images. We have a main image, which is typically a picture of the monument sign. Then, we have three smaller pictures below, which are typically things like the pool, the clubhouse, the fitness center, or some other aesthetically pleasing part of the asset.
Additionally, we include our company logo on the collage.
Adding images of the property to the email make it more professional looking and allows the investors to actually see what they are investing in right away.
You should have already added many images to the investment summary, so you can pull four images from there.
Below the image, you should start the body of the email off with the subject line of the email in all bold.
Then, in the next paragraph, you should include the main highlights of the deal, starting off with elaborating more on the subject line. For the “Significant Value-Add Opportunity in A+ Market” example, you would elaborate on why it is a significant value-add deal and why it is an A+ location.
For example:
In the next paragraph, you should include an explanation of your business plan. Some questions to answer are:
The introduction should be enough to communicate the main highlights of the deal. However, while it isn’t a requirement, you can also include other notable aspects of the deal. For example, you can provide more statistics on the overall market or submarket, provide information on the debt you are securing, explain any major operational upsides you’ve identified, talk about the company managing the project, etc.
All of the main highlights should be included in the introduction. These points should simply reinforce the main highlights and why you are investing in the deal.
After you’ve written out the main highlights and other notable aspects of the deal, you want to include the projected returns and other important information the investors need to know about the opportunity.
First, include the projected cash-on-cash return to the investors excluding and including proceeds from sale, and the projected internal rate of return to investors based on the projected hold period.
Next, include information on the minimum and maximum investment amount. Typically, you want to set the maximum investment amount equal to 19% of the total equity raise. If an investor invests 20% of more of the equity, the lender will perform additional due diligence on that person, which requires personal financial information.
Then, you want to state the closing date and funding date ranges.
Lastly, you want to let investors know how they can commit to the deal (i.e., “once you are ready to commit, please reply to this email with your investment amount”.)
I also recommend including a link to download the investment summary. The best way to do so is to upload the investment summary to Dropbox and include a link to download the file from Dropbox in the email. That way, you won’t need to send out individual emails to investors with the investment summary. Plus, Dropbox allows you to track who actually downloads the file.
To conclude the email, I recommend inviting interested investors to attend your new investment conference call or webinar. We host our calls on FreeConferenceCall.com. So, prior to creating the email, I schedule a date and time with my business partner and set up the call on FreeConferenceCall.com. Then, I include the date, time, and call in information at the bottom of the email.
Before hitting send, double check that the link to the investment summary works and that you are sending the email to your most up-to-date list of investors. After you hit send, the next step is to prepare for the new investment conference call.
Click here to learn my 7-step process for presenting a new apartment deal to my passive investors.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes of apartment syndications only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.