Brandon L. Raatikka, JD
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
• Private Placements
• Delaware Statutory Trusts
• 1031 Exchange Process
• 721 Exchanges
• Regulation A+
• UPREITs
Brandon Raatikka has served as an alternative investment analyst and project leader at FactRight for nine years. His current role is Chief Operating Officer.
Brandon’s areas of expertise include real estate syndications, Regulation A, project management, and professional business communication. Brandon is passionate about distilling complex ideas so they can be communicated clearly. This passion drives his work to identify, assess, and plainly communicate the material risks of an investment offering.
He is also passionate about people, ideas, and continuous improvement, which has helped to make FactRight the market leader in alternative investment due diligence and a great place to work. Brandon is adept at making connections between seemingly disparate concepts, and he contextualizes due diligence findings so that FactRight’s clients can make optimally-informed investment decisions. Law school emphasized the paired importance of both the details and the larger picture, and Brandon engages with that paradigm every day at FactRight.
Prior to joining FactRight, Brandon oversaw telecommunications facility site identification and analysis through due diligence, leasing, and land use planning.
Brandon is most proud of being key player and influencer on the team that has adapted, grown, and thrived during difficult economic and regulatory environments — less than 10% of companies survive for 10 years in normal conditions — and the mark he continues to make on FactRight’s culture.
- J.D., Law, cum laude, Minnesota Law Review, University of Minnesota Law School, 2003-2006
- B.A., History, magna cum laude, honors program, Bethel University, 1999-2003
- Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Keble College, University of Oxford, spring 2002
- Member and/or Chair of Editorial Subcommittee – Alternative & Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA)
- Member – State Bar of Minnesota
Recent Blogs from FactRight
- Loan Guarantee Fees in Investment Programs: Risk Compensation or Rent Seeking?by kevin@factright.com (Kevin Kirkeby) on November 20, 2023 at 7:53 pm
Company owners and other executives often receive compensation for providing a personal guarantee to a commercial loan their investment program is seeking. The size of this personal guarantee fee varies considerably, as does the level of disclosure. We believe the personal guarantor should be compensated, but it must be commensurate with the risk the guarantor is taking on. Drawing upon FactRight’s experience in reviewing private real estate and other alternative investment programs, this blog post focusses on personal guarantees (rather than corporate guarantees), discusses the typical range of fees, and reviews the factors that influence a reasonable fee amount.
- FactRight Takes Salt Lake Cityby Kate@FactRight.com (Kate Stephany) on September 7, 2023 at 5:11 pm
*Olympic Trumpet flair*
- Navigating the Cap Rate Landscape: How Real Estate Cap Rates Relate to Real Interest Ratesby Jeff.B@factright.com (Jeff Baumgartner) on August 9, 2023 at 6:02 pm
With limited success for centuries, astronomers charted the stars with hopes of better understanding the universe until one day when Copernicus suggested that the earth was orbiting the sun. Once his epiphany was fully understood, empires could navigate the globe with unprecedented precision by knowing exactly where they were by looking up at the stars. Today, there is no shortage of cap rate/interest rate correlation theories in our industry. Perhaps more fully understanding commercial real estate cap rates and their orientation to interest rates can aid alternative investors in navigating the horizon of real estate investment opportunities.
- FINRA Regulatory Notice 23-08: Building on Regulatory Notice 10-22 to Develop More Robust Due Diligence of Private Placement Offeringsby jake@factright.com (Jacob Heidkamp) on June 28, 2023 at 6:26 pm
FINRA recently released Regulatory Notice 23-08, which provides a reminder to FINRA members of their reasonable investigation obligations when selling private placement investments to their clients under Regulation D. The Regulatory Notice marks FINRA’s first substantial discussion of due diligence related to private offerings since Regulatory Notice 10-22, which was released in April 2010, and forms a crucial part of the foundation of broker-dealer due diligence practices in satisfying their reasonable investigation requirements for offering private placement investment opportunities for their clients. While Regulatory Notice 23-08 does not create new legal or regulatory requirements or new interpretations of existing regulations, the notice does identify areas for consideration and focus for FINRA members in establishing new or modifying existing practices, based on certain observations and examples that FINRA has included in the Regulatory Notice 23-08. In this blog, we will explore some of these areas of focus and some practical steps broker-dealers can take to enhance their due diligence practices based on areas identified in Regulatory Notice 23-08.
- Not All Units Are Created Equal in Broker-Dealer and RIA-Distributed Investment Programsby gail@factright.com (Gail Schneck) on June 13, 2023 at 3:44 pm
This blog looks at what unit pricing in an investment program offering means to your investors and how to determine whether such pricing treats all investors “fairly.”