Author Topic: Anyone Using Fundrise?  (Read 3925 times)

nexus

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Anyone Using Fundrise?
« on: July 12, 2017, 10:14:23 AM »
Anyone using Fundrise? Seems like they only have about 150,000 clients. I noticed they say you can target a return of 9-11% and can start with as little as $1,000. MMM hasn't done a Fundrise experiment, has he (or any of the members in this community)? It feels sort of REIT-ish to me. Give them money, have a stake in the properties they manage...?

I'm curious to hear of your experiences & opinions on the matter.

Thanks!!

etselec

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2017, 10:50:47 AM »
I looked into it briefly, but it didn't seem to stack up favorably to investing in a Vanguard REIT index fund — it has higher expenses and less liquidity. Ultimately the same principle seems to apply to it as to any other non-index investment: it would need to outperform the index significantly in order to recoup the fees and be worth the extra costs. Didn't seem worth the risk to me. If other folks had different takes on it, though, I'd be interested to hear those!

nexus

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2017, 11:01:44 AM »
etselec, great response! I was also thinking along the same lines with respect to fees. Outperforming any index isn't likely to happen consistently over the long run.

affordablehousing

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2017, 12:35:01 PM »
I was talking to someone the other day that had the experience of talking to Fundrise in search of capital for their real estate development. In short, I didn't get a lot of confidence as a potential investor in Fundrise that the staff are seriously underwriting projects. I'm all for making real estate investing more transparent and accessible, but I think services like Fundrise and the other crowd funders count on a spectacular number of casual investors to fixate solely on projected returns, and not have any real knowledge of the deals they are investing in. I remember talking to people at Peerstreet after MMM's endorsement, and no one that worked at Peerstreet had been through a workout or foreclosure that the associate I spoke with knew of! That seemed pretty irresponsible to me.

I think if you want income and risk, invest in a mortgage reit. It really worries me that all of these crowd services have never operated through a decline.

Heroes821

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2017, 01:35:28 PM »
I have several friends that are using it.  One doesn't seem to fully understand investing and sees it as a cool thing.  The others are savvy MMMers and only put like 10k fun money spread across the available funds at Fundrise.  They said the dividends are cool but it's really an experiment for them.

I was going to try it, but until my debts are clear and my saving goals are met I have no room to go outside my IPS.

afreeman85

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2017, 03:17:18 PM »
I find it interesting that it can be put in an IRA. Since the dividends here are taxed as regular income and not qualified dividends, if you can have those dividends building without taking the tax hit it might be kind of cool.

Thoughts?

affordablehousing

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Re: Anyone Using Fundrise?
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2017, 03:59:47 PM »
I guess I don't understand how it's an advantage compared to buying stock in a REIT or an mREIT like Annaly? One could do that from within an IRA as well.