Every DST sponsor's marketing looks identical: institutional photography, a projected distribution, a wall of logos. The differences that decide your outcome — underwriting discipline, fee load, communication when a deal wobbles, and a verifiable record of returning capital — live in documents most investors never read. We read them. Then we grade.
| Axis | What we examine | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Track record | Full-cycle programs completed (bought, operated, sold, capital returned) versus projections; behavior of prior programs in stressed markets; leadership tenure and continuity. | 35% |
| Fee load | Total upfront load, ongoing fees, and back-end participation from the current PPM's Use of Proceeds and conflicts sections — compared against channel norms. | 25% |
| Deal quality | Asset class and market selection, leverage level and loan maturity risk, tenant concentration, reserve adequacy, and the realism of the projections' assumptions. | 25% |
| Communication | Reporting frequency and candor, distribution-cut disclosure history, and whether investor relations answers hard questions or reroutes them to salespeople. | 15% |
See the format: a full sample report card shows exactly what forthcoming grades will look like — the stamp, the axis scores, and how every red flag gets sourced.
A sponsor cannot buy a grade, improve a grade, or make one disappear — with money, with partnership, or with a referral relationship. Grades and the partner bench are separated: a graded sponsor is not automatically a partner, and a partner is not automatically graded well. Every factual claim in a report card cites its source — a PPM page, a public filing, a regulatory record. When a grade relies on judgment rather than a document, we say so in the text. And when we get something wrong, we correct it visibly, per our editorial standards.
Specific, documented items — not vibes: distribution cuts disclosed after the fact, affiliate transactions priced above appraisal, loan maturities inside the projected hold with no stated plan, principals with regulatory history, projections assuming rent growth far above market. Each flag on a card links to its source.
Grades are opinions. Rigorously sourced, methodically scored — and still editorial opinions about securities we don't sell, published for accredited investors doing their own diligence alongside their own advisors. A grade is where your research starts, not where it ends.
If you're a sponsor and want your current offering graded — or believe a grade misses something — the same front door works for you: send documents through the contact form. Materials talk. Salespeople don't need to.
A free, no-obligation introduction to a vetted 1031 or DST partner — with our referral relationship disclosed in writing. On the 45-day clock? Same-day attention.