[mo]

Has anyone tried any of the budding real estate investment platforms that are starting to be offered to small investors under the new Reg A rules that allow them to crowd source investments?  A few that I've seen are

FundRise
GroundFloor
RealtyShares

Curious on peoples experience with any of them.  FundRise supposedly has a waiting list but they also had some sordid affair with their CFO recently where he accused the company of fraud and they accused him of extortion.  I checked out GroundFloor a while back and it seemed dead.  Just saw an ad for Realty shares when researching the other two.

[Fred93]

I'm a groundfloor investor.  The guys there are great.  The product is well designed.  A few new loans appear every week or so.  You have to be patient.  Many loans disappear within an hour or so of being posted, so in addition to being patient, you have to be quick.

The way the new reg A rules work, they have to submit a document to the SEC for every batch of loans, and then wait an unspecified time until the SEC gets around to looking at it and ok'ing it.  As soon as one of these pops out, groundfloor posts the loans same day.  You can look on the sec.gov web site and see the queue of these documents waiting to be approved.  I think they're going to have to get some improvement in this process from the SEC, as it is just too cumbersome at present.

The principals are great.  They take time to explain things to me, answer questions, discuss suggestions.  However, this is a startup, so there are risks and of course limited loan volume right now.

As they get this process with the SEC to operate more smoothly, I think they will be a fine place to invest.  Membership is by invitation, ie you have to send them an email asking to be let in.  I suspect they have about 350 investor members, just based on the count of investors in individual loans.  Given the limited supply of product, that's plenty for right now.  To be sustainable, they need to get the SEC wrinkles worked out, so product flow can scale up.  I don't think they'll have any trouble finding investors.

[rockinray]

I'm doing the Fundrise Income eREIT for a test. Cannot say too much about it yet.

We are due our first dividend payment in mid-April.

So far so good, and hope this goes well for the long term.

[Half Right]

I requested a groundfloor invite a while back but i think they can only invite based upon states they are approved in.  Fundrise has been excellent so far but i am being very careful for the coming shake out

[TravelingPennies]

from: rockinray on March 29, 2016, 08:13:23 AM

[rawraw]

I've only looked at Fund Rise. Just based on their marketing information, I expect it to be a train wreck.  This stuff is getting a little nuts.  I look at what is happening in China and worry it'll start here

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[Peter]

In general, real estate people scare me, so, there's a high burden there to be overcome regarding my comfort level in trusting RE folks...

It's probably, partly, an artifact of the entire RE industry seeming to me to be in the business of inventing charming (small) ways to lie.

Too early for me, though I do like hearing stories like Fred93's about the pioneers in the market.  I'll wait for "settler" stagecoaches, tho.

[ggnoob1337]

Quote"> from: rockinray on March 29, 2016, 08:13:23 AM

[Fred]

from: nonattender on March 30, 2016, 07:24:57 PM

[TravelingPennies]

from: Fred on March 31, 2016, 02:50:49 AM

[andy3109]

I am in about 200K between patchofland and realtyshares—been at it since early 2014. I have anywhere from 5K to 40K per deal (usually 10K). The 4 equity deals have returned an average of shit (~4%), while the debt deals have all paid out. I average about 11% before tax return on 12-24 month debt deals.

To be honest, the first position debt is relatively safe if you know the things to look for. It's the mez. debt that scares me (which of course comes with a higher APR). You'll get a schedule K for each investment at the end of the year.

If you choose to do equity, take all their optimistic numbers (sale price, rental income, etc.) and reduce them by 20-30%. Are you still happy with the return? If so, go ahead. I have two equity deals that are paying out 0$/month ATM because of income shortfalls.

[reidy83]

I have been investing in P2P Real estate sites since early 2013. I am an accredited investor so this response may not be applicable to everybody. I have reviewed 50 sites, tried 12 different platforms and have settled on 5 to 6 main sites for my P2P real estate investing.

Currently, I have invested in just over 100 deals with 60% debt positions and the remainder equity. Almost half of these transactions have been fully completed (principal & interest) with very good monetary gains. Of the 45 or so completed deals, the average return has garnered a 9.75% annual yield which is roughly 1% higher then my 8 years of returns thru LC/Prosper. The amazing thing is that I have yet to lose any principal which I cannot say the same for in my consumer lending experience.  I know many long time Lend Academy bloggers think that this type of platform is too risky but I have had good results thus far.

Below are the list of companies that I have spent the most time with in the past 3 years:

o   Realty Mogul
o   Patch of Land
o   Ifunding
o   Realty Shares
o   Fundrise

I will have a blog out next week to review these companies against each other.......

[TravelingPennies]

from: reidy83 on April 05, 2016, 09:08:21 PM

[TravelingPennies]

from: rockinray on March 29, 2016, 08:13:23 AM

[TravelingPennies]

Quote"> from: nonattender on April 05, 2016, 10:20:59 PM