New Crowdfunding Firm Focuses On Alternative Mortgage Financing
A newly launched crowdfunding platform will be focusing on raising funds for non-bank lendersthat provide short-term commercial property loans to small individuals and businesses lookingat real estate investing, a report on Bloomberg said.
The brainchild of former TripAdvisor lawyer Brew Johnson and former Google executive BrettCrosby, the crowdfunding firm, PeerStreet, Inc., will be teaming up with non-bank lenders thataim to finance the commercial real estate investments of clients "at a time when banks arereluctant to lend," according to the report.
The report said that initially, investors would be required to shell out $1,000 per deal withPeerStreet. The two founders did not share their funding goals for the company.
"Ideally we"d like to let as many people as possible in the future," Johnson told Bloomberg.Currently, however, only accredited investors are allowed to invest in PeerStreet""andcrowdfunding platforms in general""due to the JOBS Act.
PeerStreet"s partners include Los Angeles-based debt fund operator Thorofare Capital, Inc.,which recently funded a $28 million bridge loan for a multifamily portfolio buyout in New YorkCity. The company funds short-term loans between $2 million and $25 million nationwide.
As a crowdfunding partner of PeerStreet, a percentage of the debt will be held by debt-fundoperators on their balance sheets, allowing them to release high-quality loans while relievingcrowd investors of a huge burden of the risk, according to the Bloomberg report.
Another benefit of PeerStreet for debt-funders like Thorofare is that the crowdfunding platformeliminates the risk of securitization which has the potential to "dry up" private lenders as whathappened during the housing crash, the report noted.
Michael Burry, noted hedge-fund manager, is convinced PeerStreet will become a game-changer in the sector. It"s the reason he"s putting his money in it.
"These guys are really out to solve a market inefficiency," Burry told Bloomberg. "A number oflarge markets are not adequately being served by the financial sector, so it really is time fornew thinking."
The real estate sector is long overdue for industry disruptors like crowdfunding that ease theburden of real estate investing for both consumers and proprietors. In the real estatetechnology segment, digital media companies like Realbiz Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB: RBIZ) are changing the marketing landscape by providing real estate professionals a newavenue to promote themselves and their business.
RealBiz Media"s Nestbuilder.com, for example, aims to bestow agents control over how theywant to run marketing campaigns for their listings. The portal has been launched at a timewhen the only means for agents to capture leads is to buy them from listing companies andwebsites.
"Nestbuilder.com"s mission is to both empower the real estate agent and to connect thehomeowner and homebuyer directly with the agent in a personalized and meaningfulrelationship without interference from large, impersonal, third party lead generation sites,"Realbiz Media President and Chief Revenue Officer Steve Marques noted in a statement.
"Homebuyers are able to create personalized video collections of potential homes to be set-upfor review and sharing. Agents can quickly bring their listings to life via RealBiz"s rich videoconversion tools, and market their properties directly to homeowners and homebuyers in apersonalized, customized, entertaining, and engaging format no matter where they are,"Marques said of the platform.
The brainchild of former TripAdvisor lawyer Brew Johnson and former Google executive BrettCrosby, the crowdfunding firm, PeerStreet, Inc., will be teaming up with non-bank lenders thataim to finance the commercial real estate investments of clients "at a time when banks arereluctant to lend," according to the report.
The report said that initially, investors would be required to shell out $1,000 per deal withPeerStreet. The two founders did not share their funding goals for the company.
"Ideally we"d like to let as many people as possible in the future," Johnson told Bloomberg.Currently, however, only accredited investors are allowed to invest in PeerStreet""andcrowdfunding platforms in general""due to the JOBS Act.
PeerStreet"s partners include Los Angeles-based debt fund operator Thorofare Capital, Inc.,which recently funded a $28 million bridge loan for a multifamily portfolio buyout in New YorkCity. The company funds short-term loans between $2 million and $25 million nationwide.
As a crowdfunding partner of PeerStreet, a percentage of the debt will be held by debt-fundoperators on their balance sheets, allowing them to release high-quality loans while relievingcrowd investors of a huge burden of the risk, according to the Bloomberg report.
Another benefit of PeerStreet for debt-funders like Thorofare is that the crowdfunding platformeliminates the risk of securitization which has the potential to "dry up" private lenders as whathappened during the housing crash, the report noted.
Michael Burry, noted hedge-fund manager, is convinced PeerStreet will become a game-changer in the sector. It"s the reason he"s putting his money in it.
"These guys are really out to solve a market inefficiency," Burry told Bloomberg. "A number oflarge markets are not adequately being served by the financial sector, so it really is time fornew thinking."
The real estate sector is long overdue for industry disruptors like crowdfunding that ease theburden of real estate investing for both consumers and proprietors. In the real estatetechnology segment, digital media companies like Realbiz Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB: RBIZ) are changing the marketing landscape by providing real estate professionals a newavenue to promote themselves and their business.
RealBiz Media"s Nestbuilder.com, for example, aims to bestow agents control over how theywant to run marketing campaigns for their listings. The portal has been launched at a timewhen the only means for agents to capture leads is to buy them from listing companies andwebsites.
"Nestbuilder.com"s mission is to both empower the real estate agent and to connect thehomeowner and homebuyer directly with the agent in a personalized and meaningfulrelationship without interference from large, impersonal, third party lead generation sites,"Realbiz Media President and Chief Revenue Officer Steve Marques noted in a statement.
"Homebuyers are able to create personalized video collections of potential homes to be set-upfor review and sharing. Agents can quickly bring their listings to life via RealBiz"s rich videoconversion tools, and market their properties directly to homeowners and homebuyers in apersonalized, customized, entertaining, and engaging format no matter where they are,"Marques said of the platform.