Is Fundrise Legit or a new Real Estate Scam? See Full Review

Hundreds of crowdfunding websites are around. Prospective investors need clarification about which tent to pitch their capital to because they fear losing their hard-earned money to scams or incompetent organizations.

Stuff like this has raised several eyebrows in recent years leading many to ask, is fundraising legit? How competent is fundraising?

So many questions have been asked about Fundrise.

To provide a detailed answer and abate all fears about Fundrise, we have written a comprehensive review about fundraising, including all you need to know about one of the best crowdfunding websites.

Brief Introduction to Fundraise
How Crowdfunding Work
What is Fundrise?
Fundrise’s Accreditation Requirements
How to Redeem Fundrise eREIT Shares
Is Fundrise Legit?
Conclusion
Recommendation

Brief Introduction to Fundraise

Fundrise is one of the earliest companies in the real estate business in the United States. The company currently deals in real estate crowdfunding. Initially, the fundraiser allowed only accredited investors to invest in the company.

Still, in recent years, the company reinvented itself to enable the public, too unaccredited investors, to invest in the company. This reinvention has been lauded for the current massive growth in the company.

The company offers various investment packages to possible investors, with $500 as the minimum investment amount allowed, and it works very similarly to investing in a mutual fund.

You can expect a quarterly dividend payment from the Fundrise eREITs, and whatever appreciation has accrued when the assets investment term has expired.

The company currently has nine different eREITs, some of which no longer welcome new investors due to some logistics. The company allows investors to select from any of the available investment plans, and they help you spread your investment across the various eREITs to diversify your capital.

This strategy has helped the company grow in recent years to become one of the best crowdfunding websites. Despite the success story of many investors, prospective investors still need to decide whether to commit their capital to the real estate firm. Many constantly ask the question, is fundraising legit? Keep reading to see details and answer the frequently asked question.

To know if Fundrise is legit or a scam, you must learn how crowdfunding works. The following section contains valuable information about the workings of a crowdfunding organization.

Also Read: 15 Easy Ways to get Free Xbox gift cards.

How Crowdfunding Work

Firstly, there are different types of crowdfunding, and this article focuses on real estate crowdfunding. Real Estate Crowdfunding is an investment scheme that collects capital (investment) from investors to purchase a real estate asset the money collected.

The investors then become shareholders of the purchased asset from which they receive earnings periodically throughout the investment. If the company decides to sell the support, the investors also receive their share. This is a beautiful means of making money without stress.

This means of getting money from people to invest in properties is called syndication in real estate. Before the advent of the internet, this was done privately, where only a handful of the elite was invited to invest in real estate companies.

These offers are more or fewer securities that are no more different from stocks and as much, and crowdfunding is regulated by the SEC.

What is Fundrise?

Fundrise is simply a real estate investment company that allows investors to invest in commercial real estate even when they have not accredited members of a real estate company.

The company is known to operate a transparent market. Its goal is “make the process of investing in the highest quality commercial real estate from around the country simple, efficient, and transparent.”

In the past, investing in the lucrative business of real estate was only open to a few people with information about the potential of real estate. Still, thanks to organizations like fundraising, investments in real estate through crowdfunding are now available to people like you and me who are not accredited members of any real estate company.

The company does this by cutting out the middle-man overhead cost as a bridge connecting you directly to investments.

The company has hundreds of thousands of investors who have invested massively in billions of dollars worth of real estate. The minimum amount of investment presently allowed in fundraising is $500.

Fundrise’s Accreditation Requirements

As earlier stated above, in the past, fundraising was open to only accredited members until a few years ago when things took a new turn due to the intervention of the stock regulatory body SEC—in 2016, SEC released Regulation A, which paved the way for unaccredited members to invest in stocks. This move by the SEC has been highly lauded and is why you and I can now invest in real estate without becoming accredited members.

However, Regulation A became too complicated for some crowdfunding organizations, many of whom ditched the new regulation to return to conventional Regulation D, which allowed accredited members to invest in their companies.

Fundrise is one of the companies that adopted Regulation A, offering opportunities to unsophisticated investors like you and me. To invest in Fundrise, you don’t need to become an investor. Just log on to the company’s website to see the simple steps required to support the company.

How to Redeem Fundrise eREIT Shares

Redemption of shares with fundraising is simple though technical. There are set minimum durations when investors may redeem their investments. Investors are only allowed to save only some amount of shares per quarter.

Also, you are to note that fundraises get to calculate the value of the shares as it’s impossible for investors to determine the values.

The followings are the period and amount of redemption allowed by the company;

Less than six months – No Redemption Allowed
6 Months to 2 Years – 95%
2 to 3 Years – 96%
3+ Years – 97%