Crowdstreet : 2022 Best Real Estate Investment Opportunities

Diversifying your portfolio is an important step to take whether you’re an amateur investor or have decades of experience. And while you may think that diversifying the types of stocks, bonds or ETFs you buy will cut it, it may not be the most well-rounded plan for 2021 as many “alternative investments” have changed the landscape for everyday investors.
CrowdStreet is a real estate investing platform that gives investors direct access to individual commercial real estate investment opportunities, allowing you to review, compare, and personally choose the deals that meet your own investment criteria. Our managed funds and advisory services give you the same level of access, but we’ll handle the portfolio, making it even easier for you to invest.
Tens of thousands of individual investors have earned millions of dollars in distributions and diversified their portfolio outside of the stock market with commercial real estate.
CrowdSteet Platform Quick Facts:
Expected Annual Rate of Return (IRR)
17.10%
Equity Multiple (expected ROI to investor)
1.39x
Hold Period (how long your money will held)
2.3 years
Fees
0.50% – 2.50%
Investment Minimum
$25,000
If you’re looking for a platform to get started in real estate investing, CrowdStreet is certainly worth looking into. Here’s what this real estate investing platform can offer.

Get Started With CrowdStreet today!

 

Summary of CrowdStreet

CrowdStreet is a superbly well-designed platform that accelerates the due diligence process by displaying all of the information you could want in a crisp, efficient manner. Or, if you’d rather save time and trade potential yield for diversification, you can invest in the CrowdStreet Blended Portfolio. 
If you’re an accredited investor looking to put away at least $25,000 into a high-yield, long-term investment, commercial real estate is an excellent way to diversify your portfolio and CrowdStreet is the place to do it. 

What is CrowdStreet?

Founded in 2014 in Portland, OR, CrowdStreet connects accredited investors to pre-screened commercial real estate investment opportunities. 
CrowdStreet is an intermediary, not a special purpose vehicle (SPV). This means that while they do take a small cut, they empower you to connect directly with project sponsors. As mentioned above, this is a big deal because SPVs can cause communication issues or delayed funding. CrowdStreet gives you the freedom to manage your own relationship with your project sponsor.
Although CrowdStreet offers the market’s largest number of investment offerings at any given time, don’t let that fool you into thinking it trades quantity for quality. First, CrowdStreet is strictly commercial-only: there are no residential or fix-and-flip opportunities here.
Second, its sponsor vetting process is rigorous – to say the least – including background checks, reference checks, and more. The acceptance rate speaks for itself: only 5% of deals reviewed qualify for CrowdStreet. 

How does investing with CrowdStreet work?

You can begin investing with CrowdStreet in three quick steps:
  • Create an account.
  • Complete your investor profile.
  • Browse deals and invest.
There are two noteworthy elements of the account creation process. 
First, if you’d like to browse deals before committing all of your information, CrowdStreet lets you begin the browsing process as soon as you enter just your name, email, and password. 
CrowdStreet Review: My Experience Using CrowdStreet - Browsing
You can begin browsing CrowdStreet deals as soon as you create a basic account
Second, CrowdStreet will ask you multiple times to confirm whether you’re an accredited investor or not. But more on that in a bit. 
Once you begin browsing deals you’ll discover how easy it all is. As a potential investor about to plunk down new car money, all of the information you could possibly want on a given deal is cleanly presented, including:
  • Photo and video.
  • Key deal points.
  • The business plan.
  • The capital stack.
  • Live webinar invites and recordings.
  • Essential documents.
  • Site plan, unit plans, amenities, etc.
  • Sponsor info w/ track records.
  • Q&A forms.
  • And more.
CrowdStreet Review: My Experience Using CrowdStreet - Sonata at Columbia Station
You’ll find essential deal information at the top like sponsor info and minimum investment
CrowdStreet Review: My Experience Using CrowdStreet - Key Deal Points
Below you’ll find a deal summary and a plethora of additional resources
In short, CrowdStreet organizes an astonishing level of information for each deal it posts in a crisp and clean manner. 
CrowdStreet has clearly met the Herculean task of simplifying the commercial real estate investment process. The site is astonishingly robust and easy to use, so much so that other crowdfunding or investment platforms could learn a lot from it. 

 

So why did CrowdStreet ask if I’m an accredited investor?

Accredited investors are persons, entities, or funds that meet certain requirements for net worth and thus have access to greater investment opportunities. The SEC created accreditation to protect less wealthy and experienced investors from high-risk opportunities. 
To qualify to the SEC as an accredited investor you must meet at least one of the following criteria of personal wealth:
  • Have individual net worth, or joint net worth with a spouse, that exceeds $1 million (excluding the value of your primary residence).
  • Have individual income exceeding $200,000, in each of the past two years and expect to reach the same this year.
  • Have joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000, in each of the past two years and expect to reach the same this year.
  • Invest on behalf of a business or investment company with more than $5 million in assets and/or all the equity owners are accredited.
A non-accredited investor is simply a person or entity that doesn’t meet the above criteria, and thus has lesser access to fewer investment opportunities. 

What does CrowdStreet offer both types of investors?

Very generally speaking, accredited investors get access to CrowdStreet’s full offerings, including single property offerings, funds, and their own product, The Blended Portfolio (details below in Features). Non-accredited investors have access only to certain properties or funds.

How much does CrowdStreet cost?

Account creation is free. CrowdStreet charges a 0.5% to 1.00% management fee for its investment vehicle, the CrowdStreet Blended Portfolio. Fees for all other offerings not from CrowdStreet vary depending on the deal and are displayed on each offering detail page.

What are CrowdStreet’s best features?

Among other real estate investment platforms, what are CrowdStreet’s standout features? 

Connect directly with sponsors

I’ve mentioned it twice but it’s still worth reiterating; CrowdStreet is not a specialty purpose vehicle (SPV). SPVs are effectively investment middlemen that may provide convenience, but introduce a layer of risk via possible marketplace insolvency or delayed funding.
Eschewing trends, CrowdStreet connects investors directly to project sponsors for a much smoother process. 

Institutional-quality offerings

CrowdStreet does not offer residential or fix-and-flip opportunities. They eliminate 95% of their developer applications through a thorough screening process including reference and background checks. What you see is of superior quality; CrowdStreet is more Costco than Wal-Mart.
Not every deal will be right for you, but CrowdStreet doesn’t ask you to blindly trust them and roll the dice with a five-figure investment. Offerings are both high-quality and transparent.

The CrowdStreet Marketplace

You can create an account and begin browsing CrowdStreet’s curated deals within seconds. Furthermore, the site is superbly well laid out and easy to use. Plus, if you need extra assistance, it’s easy to find. You can schedule a call with investor relations or visit the help center from the Resources dropdown menu. 
It’s hard to poke holes in CrowdStreet as a platform because it’s just solid as granite. It’s only major “fault” (and it’s abundantly self-aware of this), is that it’s highly exclusive. But I’ll get to that. 

The CrowdStreet Blended Fund

Interested in diversifying your portfolio with commercial real estate but lacking the time (or patience) for due diligence on each potential deal? Consider investing in the CrowdStreet Blended Portfolio (CSBP) – known as the “Blended Fund.” 
The CSBP consists of 25+ real estate offerings from within the CrowdStreet Marketplace chosen by a proprietary algorithm, which keeps a diverse mix of property types, risk profiles, and geographies. 

Who is CrowdStreet ideal for?

High-net-worth individuals looking to diversify their portfolio

CrowdStreet isn’t shy about its offerings and whom they’re for. The call-to-action on its homepage page is hardly cryptic: DIVERSIFY YOUR PORTFOLIO. 
Slightly further down their homepage, you’ll find a slightly more subtle hint. A peek at their featured offerings reveals that they want clients who can make illiquid investments of five-plus years. 
There’s really no other buyer profile to put in this section. CrowdStreet’s ideal client is an accredited investor who can invest at least $25,000 into a commercial real estate deal and forget about it for at least five years.  
To Crowdstreet !