So how does a syndication attorney become a syndication attorney? In this talk, we’re going to actually go through my origin story. I’m sure, if you pay any attention to marketing whatsoever, you’ve heard about the importance of origin stories. This is mine. I’m using it here not only to make sure that you understand where I’m coming from and see the value that I bring to the table, but also to give a good example of an origin story and just how you would talk to somebody when you’re making a pitch, explaining your founder investment theory, whatever it is. Hopefully, at the same time, you’ll find it kind of interesting.
Again, my name is Tilden Moschetti. I’m a syndication attorney. But I wasn’t always a syndication attorney. The story actually begins about 25 years ago when I got the crazy idea that I wanted to develop real estate. My plan was to build an assisted living facility. I was going to do it in a sort of area development model, and I was going to use manufactured housing as my tool to do it. I was going to buy a huge tract of land, put up a bunch of manufactured houses, and then I was going to staff it so we could do assisted living, where people could basically have their own house and still have the benefit of assisted living. Still a good idea, though I haven’t looked into actually doing it in 24 years probably.
A lot of my clients do assisted living, and my background actually falls in line with what they’re doing. So that was 25 years ago. I started putting the idea together and I was looking around, thinking, “Oh my God, how am I going to pay for this?” I certainly didn’t have any kind of money to even buy the land and do that. At that time, I was working for a national laboratory in an administrative role, where basically I helped a couple of different laboratories with a lot of very different exciting tasks. I had an MBA, and now it was time for me to really break ground and put together this syndication.
I didn’t know at the time it was a syndication. I thought I needed money, so I looked around at who’s doing these things. I came across a few developers and looked at their backgrounds. They were doing exactly what I wanted. It seems that a lot of these people were actually attorneys, and I thought, “Okay, that makes sense.” Because not only is that going to help give me the credibility to raise money, but it’s also going to give me the legal footing to understand the whole nuances.
I understood kind of how to do development, but now I really needed to understand it from a legal standpoint. So I decided to go to law school. I went to law school with dreams of being a developer when I got out. And lo and behold, I didn’t do that. I had a great time in law school, I learned about real estate, and I learned about property. All of my stuff was property-centric, all my special electives, except for a few things that were business-centered. I wasn’t very interested in doing advanced criminal law or those kinds of things. I was interested in learning more about this property thing and real estate thing and money thing and how that all works.
I decided it would be useful for me to also know how to be a strong advocate. If I was a strong advocate, I would be able to be a better salesperson. So I took a program that is similar to the program that the National Institute of Trial Advocacy puts on. It was fantastic. I loved the trial process. In that process, we did a mock trial, but it’s like a real mock trial. We had a real judge, real witnesses. There’s a whole background thing and we put together this mini trial. I decided this is really great. I’m going to go be a trial lawyer. I was so caught up in this.
I graduated from law school, I worked for the district attorney’s office for a little while. As a side note, the Vice President was my boss for a short time. That’s kind of interesting. Then I decided it’s time to go out on my own. I went out on my own, and I was still wanting to be a trial lawyer. I had done a number of hearings and things in criminal court. But it’s actually kind of difficult to break into criminal law.
So I decided, okay, I’m going to specialize back into property. I’m going to litigate property-centric issues. What does that mean? Anytime there’s real estate at issue, I want to be involved in the battles over that, which wound up being about divorce, or bankruptcy, or partner disputes, or things like that. These were bloody battles that would be waged. And I did that for 10 years, waging war.
It’s a very unsettling activity. Litigation is very hard on everybody. It’s very hard on the people. It’s also very hard on the lawyers. The lawyers don’t have a wonderful experience, because everybody hates them. Your client hates you because you’re not getting them enough. The other side hates you because you’re not doing enough. The only people that like you are the other attorneys most of the time.
After 10 years, I was newly married and needed to make a little bit extra money because we were going to have a kid soon. So I decided to start brokering a few deals. I got really invested in the finance portion and understanding how that works. I ended up earning my CCM and really got into that piece. I brokered quite a few deals and really got into that. I was still litigating at the time too.
Then I decided I couldn’t take this litigation stuff anymore. It was just too much. Fortunately, right at that breaking point, a partner in the commercial real estate side came up to me and showed me a deal. He said, “I think we need to syndicate this.” I said, “Oh yeah, let me see that deal.” Wow, it was a really good deal. It was a medical office, triple net medical office with an investment-grade tenant. It was being developed, and we got it at a very good price.
I decided to join him in this process. I said, “Yes, okay, let’s syndicate it. I’m the lawyer, we can do all of this.” And I had no idea what I was doing. This was about 10 years ago. So I had to figure it out. As I started digging through the different codes, that’s where I came up with my phrase, “the alphabet soup,” because when you try to figure this out from the beginning, it’s confusing. It really is.
You’ve got 506(b), 506(c), 504, Reg D, Reg A, Reg CF, ICA, accredited investors. I mean, it’s just all of these letters and things. And it’s all coming from the SEC and the corporations and blue sky laws. What does this all mean? It was just too much stuff without any organization in my head. Which is why, as an aside, I put out all the material that I do, because I know how incredibly complicated it can seem. And if you have some help organizing it, well, then great. So I put that forward for you so that hopefully you find it useful to try and make sense of that world.
As it started coming together, I did my first deal. It took about six months for us to put the deal together. Fortunately, because it was being developed, we had a little bit of extra time. We managed to get it done with about 20 investors, made them some money. It was a great project and a great thing to be a part of. So I had done one deal. Then I did another deal. And then I did another deal. At this point, I’m starting to think, “You know what, I’m actually really good at this. I understand how to do this and I understand how to help people on the legal side of this.”
So I kept doing deal after deal for myself. But I started putting together my process for putting deals together and putting the documents together. How I do a subscription agreement and operating agreement or PPM, the way I communicated. I started becoming more and more systematized, which is what we do now.
Not too long ago, probably eight years ago, I decided, “You know what, I’m going to help out syndicators and help them from the legal side. I’m allowed to do legal services, I should help them with that. And I should stop litigating.” So I stopped litigating completely and I became solely focused on helping out syndicators and investment funds put together deals for themselves.
What I really enjoy doing is not only the legal work, which I find very interesting and rewarding, but my favorite part really is working with investment funds, working with syndicators and helping them get it done. Giving, you know, just talking about deals, how are we going to solve this problem? How are we going to get this done? How are we going to do it and getting people from A to B? Because at the end of the day, now, my job is making people money.
Before, as a litigator, it was making sure nobody got money, and it was not the most pleasant of experiences. It was about tearing things down. Now I help people make money. I help people become syndicators and investment fund managers, and they in turn also help their investors make money by investing in their stuff. So karmically, I feel like I’m much better off.
That is my origin story. That’s why I’m here. That’s what I do. And that’s who I am. I think you get a pretty good idea of who I am as a person from my videos. As you see me here is pretty much how I am in real life. These are all unscripted, as you probably can tell. And so this is me. I work very hard for my clients. I work very hard on my deals and for my investors. And I see our calling as a very great thing for the world. We make people money, we make people happy. It’s a great thing across the board.
My name is Tilden Moschetti. I am a syndication attorney with the Moschetti Syndication Law Group. We help people just like you, who are syndicators, investment fund managers, whether you’ve done no deals at all, your first one and you’re thinking about how messy the alphabet soup is, or if you’ve done 100 deals before. I’m sure we can help you with the legal process. And also just having somebody who’s been there to bounce ideas off of, strategize, make sure that you get the best solution for you and for your investors. Give us a call, set up a meeting. Let’s see what I can do for you.