Is Real Estate Crowdfunding a Good Investment?
Real estate crowdfunding is gaining momentum as an opportunity for investors to get in on the ground floor of real estate investing. While other types of real estate investing require industry-specific knowledge or a hands-on approach, crowdfunding offers a less complex method for getting involved. While it does allow investors to get into real estate investing without getting their hands dirty, is it really as worthwhile as it seems?
The Attraction for Investors
There are numerous real estate crowdfunding sites online right now and each one seems to have no trouble attracting new and seasoned investors. This is partly because of the 2012 JOBS Act, which broadened the methods for raising capital and allows companies to openly advertise investment opportunities. As more companies take advantage of these new rules, investors are expected to see a broader range of choices. Real estate crowdfunding companies may start to specialize in certain types of properties, which will allow investors to diversify their portfolios and maintain better control over their investments.
What Does it Cost?
As with any form of investing, there are fees associated with real estate crowdfunding, although the fees tend to be lower with companies that require higher opening balances. For example, CrowdStreet requires you to invest at least $10,000 over a 36-month period, but doesn’t apply a fee. At the other end of the spectrum, Fundrise lets you get started for just $500, but they do apply a 1% fee. Roboadvisors offers one of the lowest ranges of fees, coming in at 0.25% to 0.60%.
What’s the Bottom Line?
If you’re the patient type, you can do well with real estate crowdfunding. You will have to be comfortable with having your investment capital tied up for a period of one to five years, but, at the moment, the average real estate crowdfunding project does do well. How well? You can expect an annual return of 14.6% on closed transactions. An added benefit of real estate crowdfunding is that it offers new investors an easy way to get started, while also offering investors plenty of opportunities to diversify their investments. Real estate crowdfunding is still relatively new, which may explain why it offers the potential for such high returns. As it becomes more widely known, financial forecasters expect those returns to level out and fall in line with the returns we see in other forms of real estate investing.
Originally published at http://shawnboday.org.
