Capital markets insights

The Title III provisions were described by Forbes Magazine as the democratization of investing. Mark Roderick, a leading Crowdfunding attorney wrote, 'Title III Crowdfunding is like nothing seen before in the U.S. securities industry.' Through Crowdfunding non- accredited investors (making under $200,000 in income and less than $1 million in net worth excluding their primary residence) can invest in anything from a start up company to real estate. Investments that in the past have been available primarily to the accredited investor (making over $200,000 in income with more than $1 million in assets net primary residence).

We have all heard the term caveat emptor, Latin for let the buyer beware. All securities offerings come with lengthy legal jargon essentially informing the investor that past returns are no guarantee of future earnings. These rules, however, do not protect the investor from potential fraud.  The first prosecution of a fraud case involving crowdfunding was filed by the SEC in the US District Court of Nevada. The company in question had used several crowdfunding platforms to raise money under the Title II rules of the JOBS Act. The complaint alleges that only a small percentage of the money raised went into the stated investment and was instead funnelled into 'expenses'. So what is a potential investor to do?  The answer is due diligence and investing in platforms backed by real property.

Until not so long ago, commercial real estate investment in the U.S. belonged to the limited class of accredited investors. Institutions and wealthy families were the only groups authorized to preserve wealth or speculate with real estate. Now, with the explosion of online crowdfunding and the slow but relentless legal opening of the market to smaller investors by the SEC, every person can join the wealthy and participate in what’s expected to become one, if not the biggest, of financial investment opportunities.

A real estate crowdfunding online platform matches investors with sponsors of real estate projects, whether single family homes, apartments, retail, hotels, office buildings, or else. It operates under two different models: the debt crowdfunding, which lends money to a company to buy the property and the equity crowdfunding, purchasing shares in the company that buys the property.

Benefits may come then from returns based on a traditional model of debt and interest, or from equity.