New Offering Checklist

This workflow will provide the step-by-step process of creating a new offering in RealPage IMS. This is an overview with links to deep dive into more information. This process will include the following:         

1. Final Offering Documents
2. Build a Project 
3. Decide Accreditation Method
4. Choose an Investor Experience  

Detailed steps below:

Finalize Offering Documents

1. Create your eSignature Template and prepare your document for signatures.

Build the Project

In RealPage IMS, the project must be built before a new offering can be posted. The project build must include the entity and class (or classes) that will be raising equity. It is ideal to build the entire org chart -However, if this is not finalized, you can rework the structure after the deal is closed.

The foundation of any offering is the structure of the project build. Review how to add a new project:

1. Create Project
2. Assign Asset
3. Connect Entity
4. Create Classes - We recommend that any investors receiving payments in a similar manner via waterfall be grouped in a class (for example, a General Partner, a Limited Partner, or a Promote Partner). If you have multiple classes per entity, the Sponsor can choose to publish one or more classes in the offering room. The investor will select which class they want to place the investment in before signing the offering documents. 

Consider Your Accreditation Method

There are two workflow methods in RealPage IMS to verify an investor’s accreditation. We will select which accreditation method we want in the Investor Experience section, but it is a good idea to review your options first. 

Self Accreditation: The most common option. If this is chosen, the investor will attest to their accreditation status if you choose the Investor Portal investment experience, however, it is up to the Sponsor to determine and verify an investor’s accreditation. To choose this workflow, select 'Self Accreditation' from the Self Accreditation Method drop-down when adding or editing your class.

VerifyInvestor: This will route the investor to a 3^rd party verification system, VerifyInvestor, that will require the investor to load supporting documentation to determine accreditation status. The investor will be sent a link in the investment confirmation email after they have completed the RealPage IMS investment process and all required parties have signed the investment documents (including countersigners).

Please note that since this option requires supporting materials and review by VerifyInvestor, results can take up to several weeks.

Any Team Members that should be notified when certificates are available will need to enable the "Accreditation Certificates" notification. This can be completed by selecting your name in the upper right-hand corner of IMS, selecting "My Profile," and then toggling on that notification. You will then have the option to select how frequently you receive these notifications: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.

Once VerifyInvestor has successfully certified the accreditation of the investor, any of your team members who have the notification enabled will receive a notice that the investor(s) has been accredited and has a certificate available. The certificate will be available for download from the investor's CRM profile under the Documents tab. These certificates will only be visible from the IMS Admin side, and not visible to the investor on their portal. The investor should receive a copy of the certificate from VerifyInvestor directly. 

Choose an Investor Experience 

Offering Room on the Investor Portal: If you publish your offering to the Investor Portal, the investor will log in to their portal and review the offering details you will add in steps #3-7 below. If they'd like to place an investment, they will then select their investment vehicle (Individual,401k, Entity, etc.), select the class they want to place an investment in, enter their investment amount, and electronically sign the offering documents. This method puts the power in the hands of the investor and frees up some of the responsibilities of the sponsor. 

Follow the steps below to publish your offering on the Investor Portal. 

1. Navigate to the project > entity you'd like to build an offering for. Select 'Edit Classes'. 
2. In the Class Editor, begin by reviewing any information you may have entered previously and ensure it is correct first. If you need to add an additional class (or classes), select 'Add Additional Class'.
3. Set your minimum and maximum investment amounts and choose your accreditation method. Select 'View Advanced Details' to review additional options.
4. If you'd like the offering to be a private raise, meaning only certain investors will see the raise, you can select 'This Is A Private Class' and select which investors you'd like in the raise. 
5. Continue steps above with all classes until complete. 
6. Toggle PUBLISH/UNPUBLISH classes that you want to appear on the portal. Note: At least one class needs to be toggled to 'PUBLISHED' for the raise to appear on the Open Offerings tab on the portal.
7. Add your Investment Details to give your investors details about the raise and asset before they sign the documents. Skip to 4:30 to see how to add investment details for a CRE project. For Fund projects, click here: Fund Investment Details
8. Add your eSignature template(s), assign it to the class(es), and set up countersigner(s), if applicable. Select Save when finished on this page. 
9. Set up your Funding Preferences under Investor Settings. 
10. Setup Confirmation E-mail. This is an optional, automated e-mail that sends wiring instructions to the investor after they complete the documents. 
11. Add Check and/or Wiring Instructions to the Entity. 
12. Once all the steps are complete, publish your offering to have it appear in Investor Portals. 
13. We recommend testing the new offering as an investor. 
    a. Create an individual investor profile for yourself to test. 
    b. Create an entity profile, a joint account, and a trust so that you can see how different investment vehicles will experience the document. Connect your individual profile to each as a Responsible Party and invite yourself to the investor portal.
    c. Login directly to the investor portal, with a personal or dummy account for testing purposes. Do not masquerade as you will not be able to go through the entire offering process if you are not properly logged in.
    d. Navigate to Open Investments and select the desired offering.
    e. Follow the steps to make an investment and confirm the desired fields are populated and/or required in the electronic document.
    f. Repeat as necessary with other profile types to confirm the proper setup.

Invite to Invest: With Invite to Invest, the investor will not need to login to the investor platform. Instead, the sponsor will enter the investment vehicle, the investment amount, and will email the electronic document to the investor for signature. This is typically performed if a sponsor has already negotiated an investment amount with the investor prior to the deal paperwork being sent, as the details of the investment cannot be changed by the investor during the Electronic Signature process. 

1. Ensure all Investor CRM data is complete, especially any fields the document will be trying to pull from. Incomplete Investor Profiles will result in blank sections in the offering document. Investors will not be able to update their contact data directly on the document as this information auto-populates from the RealPage IMS CRM. Administrators will also need to be sure to select the correct investment vehicle as this will not be able to be updated as electronic documents are being signed. 
2. Navigate to the project > entity. Select 'Edit Classes'. 
3. Review the class details and make any adjustments if needed. Select the accreditation method. 
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the + mark next to Investor Signing Documents. Add your eSignature template(s), assign it to the class(es), and set up your countersigners if applicable. Select save when finished on this page. 
5. Setup Confirmation E-mail. This is an optional, automated e-mail that sends wiring instructions to an investor after they complete the offering documents via Electronic Signature. 
6. Add Check and/or Wiring Instructions to the Entity. 
7. Navigate back to the project > entity. Choose which class you'd like to add an investor to and select 'Add Investment'. 
8. Choose the investor and enter the required information. Set the investment as 'pending'. 
9. On the cap table, select the check box to the left of the investors you would like to invite then click the 'Bulk Actions' button at the top of the cap table and choose 'Invite to Invest' from the menu.
   Walk through the Invite to Invest process by adding in a fake investment and sending the document to test. Please note that the Confirmation E-mail may take up to two hours to send.

Before sending out invitations to invest, keep in mind:

1. Only click the "Invite to Invest" option in the Bulk Actions menu once.
2. Make sure to update your “support” phone number in RealPage IMS admin to your correct internal contact information so your investors know who to call if they have questions about the investment. To update this, navigate to the ‘Profile & Preferences’ menu, then select ‘Admin Settings’.