Why Crowdfunding's Here to Stay

Last night, an Atlanta developer celebrated the launch of the first commercial real estate crowdfunding project in Georgia. And in just five short years, every major developer will be using crowdfunding, according to DC-based Fundrise co-founder Ben Miller. (The only thing that sweeps through the real estate community faster is a picture of a cat in a construction hat.)

Ben would know—Fundrise (founded with brother Daniel and yes, their father is that Herb Miller of DC real estate fame) launched the very first crowdfund ever in 2011. “In 2012, we funded five projects,” Ben tells us. “In 2013, nearly 20. Now, we are funding nearly 10 a month, raising $1M a week, and we're in 18 cities—NY, DC, LA, S.F., Seattle, Portland, and counting.” Fundrise started with five investors; today it has over 18,000. (We snapped Ben at last year's Bisnow Escape event; it's coming again in November, gathering real estate's new leaders in South Beach.)

Yesterday, we snapped CrowdVested founder Grady Thrasher in front of an East Atlanta urban retail project, which will receive 20% of its equity from CrowdVested, launched three weeks ago as the first crowdfunding company in Georgia. So far, about 30 investors are involved (minimum investment $500) with a fundraising goal of $250k toward a $3.3M rehab. “There’s a lot of skepticism and folks kicking the tires,” Grady tells us. Fundrise returns average 13.8% net with a two- to three-year investment horizon, Ben says. “We've focused on deals below-the-radar of institutional capital, which means that pricing is generally better than market averages since the sub-$5M space is so capital starved.”

Crowdfunding also means speed. New York-based iFunding, for instance, has raised more than $25M from 4,000 investors in the past 12 months, funding one $75k project in just five minutes. (The leaves 23 hours and 55 minutes for us to try and explain crowdfunding to your parents.) We're told the longest raise took 21 days. (Pictured: iFunding CEO William Skelley.)

Finally, some advice for real estate companies: Don’t overthink it, says Ben. Start building an online crowdfunding presence immediately. And then after you learn the ABCs of crowdfunding, you might continue to follow Ben and Daniel’s lead to Beijing, where the brothers spent 48 hours two weeks ago “because real estate capital networks are global.” What to eat: turtle on sticky rice, a delicacy in Beijing. “We split one,” Ben tells us. “I got the whole leg—toes and all. Daniel was the lucky one who had to eat the head.”