Aspen Equity Partners was formed in January 2009. While there were some smaller direct investments in 2009 and 2010, the first structured deal was in 2011.
We believe that it is vitally important to the success of any deal to “buy right.” When we see investments that don’t go well, it is often because the buyer overpaid. The second component of our approach is conservative underwriting and extensive due diligence. We would rather patiently let deals go if we don’t believe the numbers work. While this can be frustrating at times, we will never complete a deal simply because we have the capital to invest or because we are emotionally invested in a property. The numbers must work. The third component is to work with experienced operators to manage the property and help us add value. Sometimes these are in-house and other times, we will partner with an outside firm – but always one that we know and have a high level of confidence in. The fourth and final component is to be willing to sell when we believe we have maximized the value in the property and the returns for our investors. Our typical hold time has been less than five years.
You must be an accredited investor. While we are not required to verify the information, an investor must state that he/she has an income of $250,000 individually, or a joint income of $300,000, OR a net worth in excess of $1 million, not including the primary residence.
Most of our deals require a minimum investment of $25,000 – $50,000.
The short answer is “yes” – provided that the custodian for your self-directed IRA allows for investments in non-publicly traded assets. There are several custodians who provide this service. If your current custodian does not, we can provide you with the names of some custodians we have worked with.
Once you have a custodian and have committed to an investment, we will work through the administrative details in getting the investment approved. This typically takes less than a week to complete.
While each property or investment has its own specific risks, there are always economic risks with this type of investing. For example, we may wish to sell a property and the lending environment may not be suitable for potential buyers. We focus on managing and minimizing the risks we can control through our due diligence and operational expertise—whether in-house or through one of our strategic partners.
The investments that we make are illiquid. As a result, an investor should understand that the investments typically range from 3-5 years. There have been instances when an investor needs cash and we can typically find another investor to buy the shares. Although we can’t guarantee a buyout, we have never had an instance when we couldn’t reach a fair price for an investor who needed to cash out.
We pay distributions quarterly. When a distribution is being paid, we will send a notice via email (typically as part of our quarterly communication and then the payment will be sent via ACH to your bank. We strive to have the distributions sent within 2-3 weeks after the quarter-end.
At the end of each quarter, we provide a narrative on how each investment is performing and any material operational issues – good or bad. We also provide a financial summary which details how the investment is performing and our cash position.
For each deal or fund, we provide an Investment Summary/Overview and a Private Placement Memorandum. If we are currently working on a deal, you will find links to those on the website. If not, you can contact us, and we can provide samples of those documents on past deals.
For most new investors, they have questions about how we work and our investment approach. We are more than happy to answer any questions that current or potential investors have. If there is a particular project that you would like to invest in and we are raising capital for, you can begin by working through that on the website. All of the documents should be available for your review and signature.