All Forum Posts by: Amy Wan

Note that white label solutions provide technology, but do not necessarily provide "investor verification, communication, or advertising." You can use VerifyInvestor for verification (which I like because an attorney drafts the letter, meaning that it falls within the safe harbor), and advertising/marketing strategy is specific to each group/project. Also note that FundAmerica is different from a CrowdStreet. The former is a broker dealer, and usually takes a commission. Some broker dealers provide clearing houses, others actually sell; the latter is a listing portal that charges a flat fee for exposure on their platform. There are several white label solutions out there, with more coming online each day, but you should find the one that fits your specific needs the best.

With regard to costs, it depends on what you're looking for. If you're truly plug and play, it could be relatively inexpensive. If you're looking for a large degree of customization, it will cost you more. Our firm tries to recommend to our clients to spend less on technology, since it's not proprietary. The amount of money you spend on tech should be commensurate with the expected ROI. And in the case of tech, the current ROI is not high for personal RECF platforms.

@J. Martin, thanks for putting together the event! I had a blast, met great folks, put names to faces. I tend to have to go to a lot of real estate conferences, but this was thoroughly enjoyable. Can we please do it again next year?!

My firm pretty much represents real estate syndicators and crowdfunders. When we get new clients who have never done a syndication before, we typically advise them to start with one offs in order to build a track record with investors, and then go after a fund--unless they can demonstrate why they are the exception to the rule. Small steps. Rome wasn't built in a day.

There are a few sites out there doing Reg A+ deals. Fundrise has a fund structure and is focused on commercial RE, GroundFloor has an a la carte structure and is focused on SFR (although I'm still waiting to see how they can make their business model work. I still think its unsustainable long term). There are also a good number of real-estate related Reg A+ filings in the application process, so I think we'll be seeing more of them over the next few months.

@Manolo D.@Jeff Greenberg can you post a link to the LA BP meetup? I just looked on meetup and there are so many real estate meetup groups, wasn't sure which one it is. Thanks!

I think my main dismay is that, at least under my reading of the SPV/integration rules, a developer could do max only a couple properties per year. Serious developers are going to want to do a lot more than that, so it seems like a bit of a waste time and effort. But I'm hopeful that they'll fix the regs to be more flexible.

I don't think Title III will have a large impact in the real estate arena. Am actually writing an article about this that's supposed to come out soon (ping me if you'd like the link), but in short, with the expensive transactional costs (including GAAP financials), ongoing reporting requirements (which will be at least 2-3K a year), and inability to use SPVs, Title III as written is largely unworkable for RECF. It's not impossible, but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense why any real estate issuer would use it, except for bragging rights to say that they did. All is not lost though--there is a bill that would amend Title III to make it more workable by increasing the funding cap to 5M and allowing for SPVs. But that is a bit far off and still needs to go through the regulatory process.

@Bryan Hancock, you make a lot of generalizations about "almost all crowdfunding platforms." There are over 200 RECF platforms out there today, many increasingly run by traditional real estate folks.

While any investor--whether in RECF or otherwise--should always do due diligence and ask questions, I'm not sure your statements are entirely fair. PeerStreet, for example, obtained their venture funding from some of the players who predicted the housing crash (there's now a movie about them called the Big Short). Their investors have been publicly criticized about bad underwriting and bad loans, and would likely be very incentivized to provide strict underwriting.

@Pasha Ama, @Brandon Romano's definition above is correct :) Just remember that your primary place of residence is not counted towards the net worth calculation. You can also be accredited as an entity, trust, or other legal structures as well.

@Tyler Alberson Sounds like you're using 506(b). You may want to consider using Rule 506(c) instead. PM me is you'd like to discuss.