Real Estate Crowdfunding: Build Your Portfolio Through Property Investment
You no longer need a fortune to own real estate anymore. With real estate crowdfunding, you can now invest in a fraction of a property – yes, an actual building...
This story originally appeared on Due
You no longer need a fortune to own real estate anymore. With real estate crowdfunding, you can now invest in a fraction of a property – yes, an actual building – without ever dealing with tenants.
Research Nester said the global real estate crowdfunding market was valued at $16.24 billion in 2024. It's only getting bigger with projections suggesting it could surge past $2 trillion by 2037. In 2025 alone, it's expected to reach $22.1 billion, indicating a lot of appetite for this type of investment.
When you look at this from an investor's perspective, you see that real estate crowdfunding offers a strong combination of accessibility to smaller investors and diversification that was previously only available to institutional investors.
If you want to participate, you should be knowledgeable about this topic, from its benefits to the processes involved. Let's get into the details.
How Real Estate Crowdfunding Works
Real estate crowdfunding pools capital from multiple investors on a platform to fund real estate deals. These platforms have now digitized the traditional process, allowing you to participate in commercial or residential real estate investments from your laptop or phone.
To make it easier, here's how it works: a developer or sponsor identifies a real estate project – maybe a new apartment complex or a commercial building renovation. They list it on a crowdfunding platform, seeking capital. You and dozens (or hundreds) of other investors can contribute a fraction of the funding needed. And in return, you own a slice of the project through equity or debt.
Here are some basic good-to-know details for you:
Minimal Investment: Most platforms let you start with as little as $100 to $500. So, depending on the low entry barriers, you can get started with a relatively small investment compared to traditional real estate.
Expected returns and timeframes: Returns typically range from 8-12% annually, depending on whether you invest in equity (ownership) or debt (loan-based) deals. Equity investments tend to be higher risk, but also carry the potential for property appreciation. On the other hand, debt investments offer lower risk, with fixed interest returns (usually on a shorter time frame). That said, these aren't liquid like stocks – meaning, your money is typically tied up for 3 to 7 years, depending on the project type.
Fee structures: Some platforms charge a flat annual management fee (typically 0.85%–1.0%), while others include asset origination or servicing fees in their offerings. However, these fees are not always predictable unless you dig deeper.
So, what kind of property can you invest in? There's a variety of options, including:
Multifamily Residential: One of the most common options. These properties offer predictable cash flow through rent, often with value-add opportunities.
Single-Family Rentals: These are gaining traction in suburban and emerging markets. They are often packaged into portfolios for scale.
Commercial Office Buildings: Although more volatile post-pandemic, some urban markets continue to show strong demand and upside potential.
Retail Properties: Includes shopping centers and strip malls. While these can be higher-risk, well-located properties can provide steady rental income.
Industrial and Warehousing: Thanks to e-commerce, this segment is now booming. Investors are more interested than ever in logistics centers, last-mile delivery hubs, and manufacturing spaces.
Self-Storage Facilities: Low operational costs and high demand make this a recession-resilient choice.
Medical Offices: Such properties are highly specialized and stable, especially in areas with aging populations.
Hospitality: Hotels and resorts have higher returns but carry greater risk and are more sensitive to market cycles.
Data Centers: These are a more recent addition. These high-tech properties support cloud infrastructure and have seen massive growth with the digital boom.
While these are the most common ones, picking the right property type depends on your investment goals – cash flow, appreciation, timeline, or risk tolerance.
That brings us to the next section – how you can get started:
Create an Account
Go to your chosen platform's website (like Fundrise, RealtyMogul, Crowdstreet) and sign up. You'll fill out basic personal details, complete KYC/AML verification (identity check), and sometimes certify your investor status (accredited or non-accredited).
Fund Your Wallet
Link a bank account or use a wire transfer. Some platforms let you preload funds, while others deduct directly (from your account) when you confirm an investment.
Browse Opportunities
You'll find deals with projected returns, holding periods, business plans, and risk ratings. Look into offering circulars or prospectuses to understand the investment structure, specifically the distinction between equity and debt.
Make the Investment
Once everything looks good, select your amount, sign the electronic documents, and click 'Invest'. Your funds are usually escrowed until the deal is fully subscribed.
Track Performance
When the deal closes, you can access dashboards with updates on occupancy, renovation progress, and income distributions. You can expect quarterly or semi-annual reports including general updates, rental income, and growth reports.
Once you've set everything up, the only thing remaining is for you to wait and cash out on time.
Benefits of Real Estate Crowdfunding
So, what's in it for you (besides potential returns)?
Lower Barriers to Entry
With many platforms accepting investments as low as $100, no need to save up $100,000 for a down payment. This makes real estate available to anyone with discipline and a budget.
Built-In Diversification
You can spread your funds across multiple properties, cities, or countries. So, a single tenant going dark won't cause your whole investment to flop.
Passive Income Potential
The best part is that you don't have to deal with calls about leaking roofs, but you still receive your share of rental income quarterly or monthly, depending on the platform.
Access to Institutional-Grade Assets
Through crowdfunding, you can co-invest alongside the big players, whether it's a luxury apartment in Miami or office spaces in Manhattan.
Geographic Flexibility
If you live in a high-cost area, no problem. You can always invest in lower-cost, high-yield areas elsewhere. It's real estate without regional bias.
Risks and Considerations
That said, real estate crowdfunding still has some risks involved:
Liquidity Constraints
This isn't the stock market where you click 'sell.' Many platforms require you to hold the investment for 3 to 7 years. Some may offer secondary markets, but they're not always active.
Platform Risk
The company you're trusting with your money could fold. So, do your research, such as how long the platform has been around and whether they are transparent about deal performance, among other factors.
Regulatory Oversight
Since the industry is still evolving, all platforms are yet to be regulated equally. Ensure the one you pick is SEC-compliant or follows your country's regulatory body.
Due Diligence is On You
Before investing, you must carefully read the offering memorandum, assess the developer's credibility, and understand the asset's location and local market trends.
Taxes Can Get Complicated
Income may be treated as ordinary income, and you might have to deal with K-1 forms or foreign tax implications depending on your property type. So, consult a tax professional before proceeding.
Top Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
Now, let's say you're ready to dive in. Here are a few leading platforms you can explore:
For Non-Accredited Investors (You don't need to be super rich to invest):
Fundrise
Minimum investment: $10–$500
Strength: User-friendly platform, diversified eREITs, long-term growth focus
Groundfloor
Minimum investment: $10
Strength: Short-term, high-yield real estate loans, great for debt-focused investors
For Accredited Investors Only (Usually requires $1M+ net worth or $200K+ annual income):
RealtyMogul
Minimum investment: $5,000
Strength: Institutional-grade commercial properties, both REITs and individual deals
Crowdstreet
Minimum investment: $25,000
Strength: Direct access to individual commercial real estate projects, suitable for accredited investors
Getting Started: Strategic Approaches
Real estate crowdfunding isn't a 'get-rich-quick' scheme, it's a real investment strategy that requires a well-planned approach. So, if you're serious about it, you need to start by evaluating every deal as if you're buying the entire property.
Properly check the sponsor's track record, understand whether you're looking at debt or equity, and find out exactly what drives returns and what could trip them up.
Then, diversify. But don't just spread your capital across similar deals. Real diversification involves examining various property types (such as multi-family vs. industrial) and markets (coastal vs. inland).
As for risk and reward, instead of getting swayed by glossy returns, ask yourself: How are those returns built? Is it through cash flow or speculative appreciation? If the answer is not clear, approach it carefully.
Finally, start with the right amount. Platforms may allow $100 minimums, but real strategy isn't about finding the lowest entry point – it's about smart allocation. So, you must stick to your goals, trust your judgment, and seek expert help when needed.
Here are 6 innovative approaches for fractional real estate investing you can follow:
Create a Partnership: Pool your resources with others to buy property collectively. You'll typically form an LLC or LP, sharing risk, responsibilities, and rewards with them. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): Invest in shares of a professionally managed real estate portfolio. REITs offer diversification, liquidity, and steady dividends from rental income and capital gains. Real Estate Syndication: Partner with other investors to fund large-scale projects. Contribute capital while a sponsor manages the deal, offering high returns with minimal involvement on your end. Crowdfunding Platforms: These platforms let you invest in diverse real estate projects, lowering entry costs while expanding your portfolio across regions and property types. Vacation Home Rentals: Unlike timeshares, fractional ownership of vacation properties lets you access a luxury home and retain equity that can be sold or passed down. Real Estate ETFs (exchange-traded funds): Invest in ETFs focusing on REITs. These funds mirror specific indices, offering exposure to real estate markets with high liquidity and solid dividend payouts.
Each strategy offers a distinct approach to building a diversified, high-return real estate portfolio. However, you should still reassess your investment goals and risk tolerance before deciding.
Future Trends
So, where is this all headed? With real estate crowdfunding evolving fast, platforms aren't just digitized middlemen anymore – they're morphing into tech-powered ecosystems.
Smarter Tech, Better Access: Dashboards are getting cleaner, smarter, and more actionable. Also, AI-powered tools are helping investors assess risk factors and spot trends faster than ever.
Regulatory Growth: With crowdfunding's rapid growth, stronger oversight and investor protections will help build trust and legitimacy.
Market Expansion: As platforms scale and more investors join in, you can expect a greater range of offerings – international deals, ESG-focused investments, and even tokenized real estate.
Final Thoughts
Real estate crowdfunding unlocks an investment path previously closed to the average person. It offers portfolio diversification, passive income, and access to high-quality properties—all with relatively low capital requirements.
But it's not without its risks. So read the fine print, stay informed, and invest with intention.
And if you're confident in exploring real estate without buying an entire house, real estate crowdfunding is your answer.
The post Real Estate Crowdfunding: Build Your Portfolio Through Property Investment appeared first on Due.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Adapt or else? How the sell-side is adjusting to new risks
Among examples, Allright says, are market risk and credit risk capital requirements under the Basel framework. The proposal by the Basel Committee to strengthen banks' resilience to risks was written in 2019, but its introduction has been pushed back repeatedly since then. Banks are unsure when, or even if, they should invest in complying with the rule. There is also a trade-off to be considered – which other compliance project must be deprioritized to provide financial headroom for any new rules? 'Uncertainty of when, or if, a regulation is required adds a risk to a bank, who have to make a decision on how to invest engineering resources to meet regulations,' says Allright. Technology risks Technology itself is adding risks to banking operations. As Bloomberg's Global Head of Sell-Side Product Phil McCabe explained earlier in this report, the advent of electronic trading and automation has compressed investors' fees, hastening the diversification of their portfolios into new markets as they search of better returns. This has brought liquidity to once niche asset classes such as crypto, private equity and structured products Moving into new markets requires investment to develop new complex pricing models and deploy techniques to clean and smooth data. These costs can increase further when there is a requirement to provide portfolio level analytics in a timely manner. Search for innovative solutions Focusing on data and its increasing significance in banking operations: consistent datasets, particularly when used for pricing financial securities, provide banks with reliable informational bases for assessing and addressing emerging risks. Additionally, APIs facilitate connectivity to software and modeling tools, enabling banks to effectively utilise the expanding data pools accumulated by the sell-side on a daily basis. However, as the sophistication of data uses grows, many banks are unlikely to have necessary capabilities in-house to smooth curves and clean data sources as well as accumulate all data sets in a timely fashion, and so they increasingly need to turn to data- and technology-specialist vendors. Mitigation technology Sell-side organizations must consider how to achieve technological transformation to address new risk profiles. Building capacity is one option, but it is costly and requires ongoing updates. This strategy may be impractical if the organization's tech stack is fragmented, and systems are poorly connected. As the speed of technological change and the cost of implementation rise, it has become prudent for banks to outsource these operations. A key to meeting the challenges of the new regulatory landscape is access to consistent data sets and pricing models, says Allright. 'What you [as a bank] don't want to have is a risk solution at the top of the house that's different from a solution that the traders are utilizing, because it's likely they will be looking at different numbers,' he says. In organisations with siloed tech stacks, end users such as traders and compliance professionals, may not be working from single source of truth dataset, or a golden source of their enterprise intelligence. This becomes challenging when different departments may have to report to different regulators with different data sets. Having access to consistent data and pricing models ensures banks can satisfy modern reporting rules because regulators require data transparency and accurate pricing models that can justify the claims and assumptions built into disclosures. An additional reason to seek external support is the ability to connect to data and models in structures such as clouds and APIs, which allows for secure integration of external and internal data and provides organizations with a comprehensive view of their risk exposures. It is of great importance to banks to bring huge volumes of quality data into their systems ready for analysis and querying, says Allright. To that end, Bloomberg has developed tools and technology that allows -banks to access software and infrastructure through the cloud and APIs without the need to for large capital outlays. For instance, Bloomberg's Web Services technology delivers lightweight, industry-standard APIs. These APIs provide banks with flexible access to Bloomberg's software and infrastructure without requiring significant capital investment. 'A lot of investment in the past has gone into hardware on site, but these are machines that are not as flexible and scalable as we move into a new cloud-based computing world,' Allright says. 'We see clients trying to access our set of APIs rather than buy in a fixed product that sits on their desktop because they want to utilize the data and manage the data in different ways increasing deploying their own artificial intelligence – they want to commingle it with their data and create their own IP.'
Fast Company
3 hours ago
- Fast Company
Turn data into dollars
We have officially arrived in the era where e-commerce brands that prioritize smart, value-aligned engagement over mass media spend are owning the here and now—as well as the future. With traditional advertising under pressure to deliver a more definitive ROI, looming tariffs driving up the cost of everything, and consumer confidence lower than it's been since peak pandemic, we all need to make every dollar count. In addition, the CFO is more interested in marketing ROI than ever, and wants to see measurable results. The old playbook of more ads, more impressions, and more clicks has never really worked. In our exciting new reality, smart marketers do (a lot!) more with less and will more easily navigate the bumpy road ahead. Customer data is your gold mine Do you remember the years we were all obsessed with 'big data' (perhaps I'm showing my age). Now we have so much more data, but still, so many are unsure of how to unlock it in ways that delight customers and bring in meaningful new revenue. In comes AI, hurray! Knowing that it's easier—and less expensive—to keep existing consumers than to acquire new ones, leveraging that powerful first-party data is one strategy that will drive better results. Understanding which offers, products, and content your existing customers respond to, and how to present them in the most compelling and enticing way, lays a data-rich foundation for deeper engagement and sustainable growth. There is so much value hidden in e-commerce-owned channels. Checkout is unique because attention is highest and intent is clearest. Checkout is a perfect opportunity for brands to present relevant upsells and offers powered by first-party data. It's also a great time to drive incremental revenue by presenting strategic partner messages/products and loyalty nudges. Checkout interactions are the perfect environment for bringing in new revenue, increasing customer lifetime value, and capturing real attention and engagement. The next growth wave won't come from bigger budgets Too many ads create a noisy and less enjoyable checkout experience. Millennial and Gen Z consumers are more likely to reward brands that respect their time, attention, and preferences. Key digital moments like checkout, order tracking, and order thank yous are perfect opportunities for e-commerce merchants to present value-aligned, relevant offers that reinforce trust and drive repeat engagement. The next wave of growth won't be driven by spending more. The smartest marketers will extract more value from what already exists. Focusing on intelligent monetization and intentional engagement will allow e-commerce retailers to emerge from this challenge stronger and closer to their customers. Treating data as more than a record and checkout as more than a singular transaction will allow e-commerce retailers to unlock new revenue streams at zero additional cost.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hilco Streambank Seeks Offers for Dallas, TX-Based Data Center Business
NEW YORK, June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hilco Streambank ( a leading intellectual property advisory firm specializing in intangible asset valuation, advisory, and monetization services, announced that it is seeking offers to acquire CoreSpace, a Dallas, TX-based data center providing multiple services to over 200 customers with a full-time staff of 6 employees, via a private sale of the company's assets, including IP addresses, trademarks and domain names, real estate, and hardware. Non-binding indications of interest are due by June 17, 2025. CoreSpace is a boutique data center offering colocation, public and private cloud, dedicated and virtual servers, SEO, and other services to small and medium enterprise clients. CoreSpace has a loyal customer list of over 200 clients, many of whom have worked with CoreSpace for ten years or more, which generated over $1.3 million in 2024. CoreSpace's top ten customers each billed an average of more than $50,000 in 2024. In addition to 130,000+ ARIN allocated IP addresses, trademarks, and domain names, an entity with the same ownership as CoreSpace owns a 30,000 square foot data center and office facility with prime freeway frontage in Dallas, Texas, of which CoreSpace is the sole occupant. The building is equipped with 1 megawatt of conditioned power, and up to 1.5 megawatts of utility power is backed by an onsite company-owned generator. CoreSpace currently uses less than 30% of its conditioned power infrastructure. The company also owns a large inventory of onsite equipment, infrastructure, critical power and HVAC components, and hardware. Hilco Streambank CEO Gabe Fried commented on this opportunity, "CoreSpace is an operational business with a small but deeply knowledgable team of employees. This is an opportunity for anyone new to or experienced in data center operation to step into a nearly break-even enterprise in a significant and growing tech hub." Fried continued, "A buyer of all the assets not only has 200+ loyal customers it can continue to service, but can leverage the 70% of unused conditioned power to expand its client list with little extra resources needed." A buyer may also have the opportunity to acquire select assets. Click here for more information. Interested parties may contact Hilco Streambank at project+core@ to learn more. Gabe Fried CEO 617.458.9355 Charles Abramson Sr. Account Executive, IPv4 646.651.1954 Stella Silverstein Analyst 646.651.1953 About Hilco Streambank: Hilco Streambank is a market leading advisory firm specializing in intellectual property disposition and valuation. Having completed numerous transactions including sales in publicly reported Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcy cases, private transactions, and online sales through Hilco Streambank has established itself as the premier intermediary in the consumer brand, internet, and telecom communities. Hilco Streambank is part of Northbrook, Illinois based Hilco Global, the world's leading authority on maximizing the value of business assets by delivering valuation, monetization and advisory solutions to an international marketplace. Hilco Global operates more than twenty specialized business units offering services that include asset valuation and appraisal, retail and industrial inventory acquisition and disposition, real estate and strategic capital equity investments. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Hilco Streambank Sign in to access your portfolio
