Thoughts on EquityMultiple CRE investment syndicate?

Question

Hi,

I'm a total noobie in the real estate investing world, so apologies in advance for the silly question. I tried searching but did not find much discussion on EquityMultiple.

I recently came across an add for EquityMultiple (https://www.equitymultiple.com) . They appear to be a real estate investing syndication firm. I like their idea of using clients money towards multiple well-curated commercial real estate assets. Anybody have any experience with the firm? Are they a legit company?

Thank you for your feedback!

Greg Scott · Answer

I had not heard of Equity Multiple before but checked out their web site.

Don't be in a hurry to jump into this one.  There are too many companies like this to count.  Do some due-diligence and find one that best suits your needs.  This one has had some very good returns, although I suspect some of their commercial office building purchases won't end up working out so well.

I did get a chuckle from some of their marketing material language.  We apply proprietary algorithms & underwriting methodologies, selecting just 5% of investments evaluated.  This sounds really sophisticated, but anyone who has created their own spreadsheet for analyzing deals could say the same. Also, anyone that is landing one of every 20 deals they analyze is probably overpaying for many of them.  Most people I know say you analyze 100 deals to find the one you buy.

Evan Polaski · Answer

@Moe Ahad, I am similar to Greg.  They have a nice website.  They have exited a fair amount of deals, which is always a nice data point.  I would setup a call with them and ask for more information.

The one item that initially came to mind was: they have a fund, and they do direct asset investments.  How do they pick which deal goes into which vehicle?

But as noted, there are 100s of groups syndicating real estate capital for direct equity, fund equity, debt placements, development, value-add, core deals in various property types.