Posted by Amelia Whitehart on January 2, 2023 in Real Estate
Real estate crowdfunding reviews 2023 by CrowdBulls: Even though some real estate crowdfunding platforms provide multilanguage support, translations for most of them are poor. Try to use English version as we believe this reflects the content the best. There are certain platforms designed for a specific country e.g. Germany only, France only. We do not recommend investing there as investment is all about familiarizing with the project and assessing the risk. Whereas when projects are described in a local language, there might be many areas for interpretation. Discover additional details on real estate crowdfunding platforms tracker.
On the flip side, real estate crowdfunding invites investors to pool their money using online financial technology (fintech) or crowdfunding sites to fund real estate investments, with an eye toward making an eventual one-time or ongoing profit. A few hundred dollars is often all it takes to get started with these internet-powered investment solutions. Monies are commonly paid into Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and similar financial vehicles, which effectively serve as holding companies that own and operate various real estate investments. These properties can take the form of houses, apartments, condos, retail space, malls, hotels, offices and more. Unlike many publicly traded REITs though, crowdfunded investments are typically privately held. These REITs also tend to pay regular earnings our to investors in the form of dividends.
PeerStreet is an online marketplace where accredited investors can invest in high-quality private real estate loans. Here’s how it works: Your investment gives lenders capital to lend to real estate borrowers, then PeerStreet collects the monthly payments from the borrowers, and you (the investor) get a share of those monthly payments. You can diversify your portfolio manually or automatically with investments from various locations, lenders, borrowers, asset classes, terms, loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, and rates.
Risk profile: Real estate crowdfunding platforms are regulated by central banks and one of the requirement is to have a risk scoring methodology which typically ranges from A to D-E. Risk assessment methodologies are not publicly available but the general scale – A contains the lowers risk, whereas D-E, the highest risk. Risk methodologies are approved by central banks. Crowdbulls does not include this ratio in the comparison tables as scale is not available and B from one platform could not be compared to the B in other platform.
YieldStreet: If you’re looking to invest in a variety of different privately structured deals which are backed by assets that help protect your principal (which may provide some small measure of assurance to prospective investors in the event of default), YieldStreet can help. Largely targeted at accredited investors, it offers a way to crowdfund real estate financing vehicles as opposed to owning a part of residential or commercial property holdings. Nonaccredited investors wishing to invest a minimum of $1,000 may find passive income-generating opportunities available as well though. If you’re just looking to dip your toes into real estate crowdfunding, the site also offers investment opportunities that can range in length from as little as 6 months to as long as 5 years.
Real estate crowdfunding is very similar to equity crowdfunding in the sense that an investor can buy into a property and become a shareholder. The investor does not need to buy the entire property. Instead, the investor can earn a portion of the profits generated from the real estate investment. For example, any revenue generated from the building’s rental income or any proceeds from the sale of the building would be paid to the investors. One of the benefits of real estate crowdfunding for non-accredited investors is the low minimum investment amounts that are typically required. In some cases, investors can become shareholders in real estate for $5,000. Also, real estate crowdfunding can help investors reduce the risk that’s associated with an equity portfolio. In other words, real estate crowdfunding helps investors to diversify the risk in their investment portfolios by not having all of their funds in the equity market. Read even more details on crowdbulls.com.
How to invest in real estate crowdfunding process? First of all, an investor should select a preferred platform, where he or she wants to invest. A broader description and comparison of various platforms could be found here. Secondly, each regulated platform applies a KYC procedure, which usually contains a self onboarding process with taking a picture of yourself, filling up a questionnaire and supplying additional information. Onboarding process can take from 15min mins to 24 hours depending on the platform and KYC provider platforms are using. After onboarding yourself, you can select the preferred project and invest. Depending from the platform, minimum investments start with as little as 100 EUR.