There are a lot of real estate crowdfunding platforms out there. Some have failed, others are flat lining, and others are growing exponentially or somewhere in between. Some growing platforms like RealtyMogul smartly decided to get out of single family investment properties.
When you have smaller properties to deal with, the returns are much lower. The work it takes to originate the loans and raise equity is almost the same amount as if you were to originate a large multi-family residential property.
When I first invested in real estate crowdfunding, I used RealtyShares, which is unfortunately no more. One of RealtyShares downfalls was that it got into single family properties and got out too late.
Still seeing so much potential in the real estate crowdfunding space, I started looking for RS alternatives. And that's how I came across RealtyMogul, Fundrise, and CrowdStreet.
RealtyMogul smartly realized that residential fix and flip (single family properties) are operated by much smaller sponsors with less of a track record. In other words, sponsor quality is not as high as with larger institutional commercial real estate.
Why RealtyMogul Smartly Got Out Of Single Family Residential
Private money lending has traditionally been a local activity. A guy with money makes a loan to a local developer to buy, rehab (aka “fix”) and sell (“flip”, or sell quickly) the property at a profit. The local lender knows the market well and is more than happy to take the property if the borrower fails to pay.
The purely local nature of fix and flip lending changed with online lenders having nationwide reach and access to tremendous amounts of capital, either from retail or institutional investors. At one point, RealtyMogul had in hand nearly $1 billion in capital commitments to purchase fix and flip loans from institutional buyers.
In late 2015, RealtyMogul smartly started to notice a market shift. Fix and flip loan pricing started to drop. First it was 11%, then 10%, then 9%, and in many major markets it dropped to 8%. Throw in the cost of servicing these loans and on an 8% loan, investors’ estimated return is 7%.
Did the risk profile of fix and flip loans suddenly change? They did not think so.
Did the cost of originating and servicing them dramatically drop? While technology started playing a larger role in the space, this drop was too sudden and too sharp.
So, what happened?
Market entrants flooded the market, taking the approach that volume is king.
Related: RealtyMogul Vs Fundrise: The Two Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
RealtyMogul's Smartly Optimizing For Business Returns
There is something they call the risk/reward calculation in lending. The risk associated with a loan should be commensurate with the reward, or profit made by originating the loan. Take into account the cost of originating and that is how you can determine whether or not to make a particular loan.
At 8%, there should be a relatively lower risk profile to a loan. However, the opposite was true. The dramatic increase in capital in the market meant that riskier loans were demanding lower and lower rates.
Borrowers with great experience, credit and lower leverage were able to get rates in the 4-5% range from banks. Whereas the 9-12% loans were only available in markets where there were no alternatives and the risk was fairly high.
At the same time, a coming wave of loans started to come due in the commercial mortgage backed securities market. In 2016, Morningstar projected that up to $170 billion in loans were due in 2016-2017. These loans were originated over 10 years ago, right before the market turn, and were done on very aggressive underwriting terms that are no longer available.
The net result is that somewhere between 60-70% of these loans due did not have available refinancing options that were sufficient to fully pay them back without more capital, even though many of the loans had solid cash flow.
This gap – the space between a loan coming due and the loans available in the market – can be filled with a product called “sub-debt”, which can be structured as either a preferred equity piece or mezzanine loan.
Related: Invest In Real Estate Or A 401(k) For Greater Wealth?
Sub-Debt Is A More Attractive Investment
Current market rates for sub-debt are around 10-13%, the payments are made monthly, and the loans are secured by occupied commercial real estate with existing cash flow.
Risk-wise, while 10-13% may sound burdensome for a borrower to pay, remember that current interest rates on senior debt are low, so a borrower can take on a 70% loan at 4% and add 10% sub-debt at 12% and have a blended cost of capital lower than 5%, still below historic averages.
If RealtyMogul can offer their investors a 10-13% sub-debt investment supported by cash flow on a commercial property, or a similar-rate fix and flip investment supported by a home being rehabbed, in their judgment it is only prudent to provide the former.
RealtyMogul always reassess the market to determine what is both the right product market fit, as well as a proper risk adjusted return for our investors. This is one of the reasons why investing with RealtyMogul is great. They are forward thinking.
Rising Rates
In 2023, however, higher interest rates are taking a toll. According to Bloomberg, “many (global) real estate markets are almost frozen with some lenders telling borrowers to sell assets or risk foreclosure amid demands for additional capital from landlords.”
Real estate values and cash flow are under pressure. And many predict that the US will be in a recession by the end of the year. As such, reviewing and diversifying your market exposure and investments is important.
For those who are looking for opportunities in commercial real estate, RealtyMogul has made it easier than ever.
RealtyMogul Review
RealtyMogul was founded in 2012 and offers accredited investors a way to invest in debt or equity commercial real estate offerings. In 2021, they distributed over $100M, had 170K members, and funded over $2B in property deals.
As of 2023, they now have over 274k investors with over 35k investments made on the platform. And over $1 billion in capital invested. They also have exposure to more deals and have posted $5.9+ billion in deals since inception.
I spoke to their CEO, Jilliene Helman at length and she mentioned how she wants to build a multi-decade long business not a flip. Instead of growth at all cost, she’s focused on growth at a reasonable pace to ensure long-term profitability.
Her firm is extremely focused on the underwriting process, uses technology to automate more cumbersome areas of the business, and has higher origination fees for sponsors to account for the costs of doing business. They also focus on investments larger than $1M. 65% of their deals are in bread and butter multi-unit residential property.
Given they have higher barriers for whom they do business with,they really are focused on hitting singles and doubles instead of home runs, which is more in line with how I like to operate my own business.
RealtyMogul Smartly Provides Transparent Deals
If you are an accredited investor, it's worth signing up for RealtyMogul and seeing all the deals they have to offer. It's free to look around and analyze their real estate investment opportunities. RealtyMogul has been on a hiring binge and is actively increasing its deal flow. I provide a thorough RealtyMogul latest update here as well.
Another great real estate crowdfunding platform is CrowdStreet. It is also for accredited investors. What's unique about CrowdStreet is that it focuses on investments in 18-hour cities. Further, investors can invest directly with the sponsor. The heartland of America should continue to gain more people as Americans spread out post pandemic.
FinancialSamurai.com was started in 2009 and is one of the most trusted personal finance sites today with over 1.5 million organic pageviews a month. Financial Samurai has been featured in top publications such as the LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. He has over $800,000 invested in real estate crowdfunding.