In my quest to understand all the top real estate crowdfunding platforms, I’ve put together this comprehensive EquityMultiple review.

The NASDAQ is now up over 20% and the S&P 500 is roughly back to even year-to-date. With a strong recovery in stocks, money should be looking for lagging recovery opportunities in real estate.

EquityMultiple actually contacted me back in 2017, a couple months before my first child was born. At the time, I was too focused on ensuring everything went smoothly with my family to pay attention to anything else.

Now, I have all the time in the world between 4:00 am – 7:30 am and after 9:30 pm. With roughly $500,000 in real estate crowdfunding capital returning to me over the next three years, now is the time to do more research.

Here is my EquityMultiple review with answers from Soren Godbersen, Head Of Growth.

After publishing my post, Focus On Trends: Why I’m Investing In The Heartland Of America, a couple readers pointed out that Fundrise, one of the leading real estate crowdfunding platforms, offers various eREITs.

Further, on February 13, 2019, Google announced they are investing $13 billion in heartland real estate to expand their offices and data centers. The trend to the heartland is real!

One of the unique things about all of Fundrise’s eREITs™ is that you don’t have to be an accredited investor ($200K+ income, $1M+ net worth excluding primary residence) to invest due to Regulation A+ of Title IV of the JOBS Act.

Regulation A+ is a type of offering which allows private companies to raise up to $50 Million from non-accredited investors. Think of Reg A+ like launching a mini-IPO, but with lower fees than the traditional IPO process.

Given I’m bullish on the heartland for the next 20 years, the Heartland eREIT™ sounded like a promising investment. 

I wanted to provide a review, even though the Heartland eREIT™ is no longer available, because the review will give an idea of the innovative thinking by Fundrise as we invest in the new 2020 decade.

Fundrise is all about creating different types of eREITs for investors to diversify with less volatility into real estate. Hence, the Heartland eREIT review is pertinent to all Fundrise eREITs.

My grandfather used to own a small, 8-acre fruit and plant farm on the western side of Oahu. It was a magical place nestled next to the majestic Waianae mountain range. The farm was part of his retirement income strategy as he rented out a portion of the land to his neighbors who grew green onions.

When I was going through my quarter-life crisis in 2001, I thought about quitting finance altogether and moving to my grandfather’s farm to help him maintain the crops. I longed for a simple life where I’d clear the brush and water the trees in the early morning, eat mangos and papayas for brunch, take a midday nap, box up the fruit to sell at the local grocery store, and then go surfing in the early evening before coming home.

Unfortunately, I never made the move. And as my grandfather grew older, the weeds started to overtake much of the plantation and we eventually sold the property. In retrospect, I wish I had at least taken a sabbatical to live on the farm and help out my grandfather.

Given my connection with farming, I was intrigued when Artem Milinchuk, founder of FarmTogether, asked if he could sponsor me to do some research about the benefits of farmland investing. Here’s a post about what I learned about the asset class. Here is my FarmTogether review for 2021 and beyond.

If you want to invest in real estate, consider investing in Fundrise eFunds. Fundrise eFunds are private real estate funds that provide diversified exposure across America.

Washington D.C. based Fundrise is one of the most innovative real estate crowdfunding platforms today. They were the first to create the eREIT, a real estate fund that uses crowdfunding regulations to provide access for non-accredited investors to invest in private real estate across the country. 

Then they invented the “Internet Public Offering.” Fundise directly raised over $14.6 million from 2,300+ Fundrise customers in a matter of 27 hours. Finally, Fundrise has created Opportunity Zone funds to take advantage of tax laws.

When they contacted me to sponsor a post about their new Fundrise eFunds offering, I obliged. As a real estate enthusiast who loves to learn new things, the Fundrise eFunds look promising.