•  Real Estate

RealtyeVest Review

Update: We are keeping this review up for historical purposes, but RealtyeVest is no longer active or is otherwise no longer accepting investments. We are keeping this review up for historical purposes, but the RealtyeVest founder was convicted of defrauding investors, and the platform has shut down.

We are keeping this review up for historical purposes, but the RealtyeVest founder was convicted of defrauding investors, and the platform has shut down.

RealtyeVest

  • Investment Types: Real Estate
  • Sectors: Commercial Real Estate and Residential Real Estate
  • Minimum Investment: $5,000
  • Advertised Returns: 10-20%
  • Must be accredited
 Pros
  • No fees for investors
  • Clear up front about investment thesis
  • Novel profit-sharing on debt deals
  • Strong real estate industry pedigree
 Cons
  • Must be accredited investor
  • Principals have extensive industry experience, but platform has relatively short track record (5 deals funded to date)
  • Low dealflow
  • Minimal details posted about due diligence process
  • Payments made only by check

Overview

Update: We are keeping this review up for historical purposes, but RealtyeVest is no longer active or is otherwise no longer accepting investments. We are keeping this review up for historical purposes, but the RealtyeVest founder was convicted of defrauding investors, and the platform has shut down.

RealtyeVest originally launched under the name “IHT Realty Crowdfunding” (and there’s still a smattering of pages up on the old URLs), but a few months ago re-branded and moved off of the Groundbreaker white-label platform to their own custom platform.

Types of investments RealtyeVest offers

RealtyeVest offers both debt and equity investments in a range of project types, from individual house fix-and-flips to large mobile-home developments. Notably several of their debt investments also include a profit share component, where investors receive a portion of the upside upon sale or refinance.

They also offer access to “Pledge Funds”, a pool used for “off-market offerings (that) are extremely attractive and are typically only available for a few hours”, where individual investors can choose to participate on a deal-by-deal basis (which makes it different from most investment funds).

Ovearll, RealtyeVest focuses on what they call “on trend” investment opportunities – broadly speaking, those consistent with key demographic and macroeconomic trends, like the need for more assisted living and the reluctance (so far) for millennials to dive into home ownership en masse.

What do you get when investing with RealtyeVest?

When you invest through RealtyeVest, as with many real estate investment crowdfunding platforms, what you actually receive is a membership interest in an LLC created specifically for that investment. The LLC in turn is what holds the interest in the property. For each investment you make with RealtyeVest, you’ll receive a separate K1 at tax time to report your share of the income received by the LLC.

How does RealtyeVest make money?

RealtyeVest doesn’t charge any fees directly to investors (sponsors pay a fee to list their projects on the platform).

Potential returns and cashflow

As of this writing, most of the investments listed on eRealtyVest offer a 10% annual return, paid quarterly. Notably several of the debt investments also offer a profit-share component, where investors receive a pro-rata share of 10% of the upside upon sale or refinance of the property.

Investment terms vary from 3 months to 2.5 years among active investments at the time of this writing.

Breadth of offerings on RealtyeVest

At the time of this writing, there are 7 active investments (including the Pledge Fund), and 3 “Coming Soon”, all of them debt, though several also include a profit-share component.

Regulatory framework

RealtyeVest offers investments only to accredited investors, under SEC Reg D. They are not a registered broker-dealer or investment advisor.

They emphasize their role in curating and selecting investments, though their site is a bit vague about the details:

Our underwritting team has extensive experience structuring and executing customized financing solutions for developers, homebuilders and real estate contractors. We ensure each deal is property underwritten before it ever appears on our website.

While that kind of process should not be a substitute for your own due diligence before making any investment, it is a different approach than some other platforms offering similar investments, and which function more like marketplaces, offering minimal curation themselves.

This review was first published on 11 July 2017.


Our Rating

Poor

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