What's A REIT?
Hello REIT. We’re Here to Party.
This is the One. The elite party above your pay grade and social status whose list you’d never be on. The one you lusted over but figured you couldn’t afford the ride to get you there. The one that you’ve been trying to ignore even existed. Let bygones be bygones. You’re on the list. Heck, the door’s wide open; let yourself in.
What is a REIT?
“Real estate investing isn't about how much the next guy will buy it for. It's about understanding the value of a property based on how much money that property can put in your pocket.”
-Husein I. Sonara, FundRebel Chief Strategy Officer
Let’s start this deep dive into real estate investing by building your knowledge with some foundational information. The first thing you’ll want to know is what a REIT is. AReal Estate Investment Trust is where a company owns, operates, or finances income-generating properties with a pool of capital from various investors. REITs make it possible for investors to earn dividends from real estate investments without having to buy, manage, or finance any properties themselves. They generate a steady income stream from them. This makes REITs incredibly effective in generating passive revenue.
There are three kinds of REITs: publicly traded, non-traded, and private. Publicly traded REITs have their securities registered with the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission), they file regular reports with the SEC, and their shares are freely tradable on an exchange or secondary market. Non-traded REITs are those who filed with the SEC but whose shares aren’t publicly traded on an exchange. There’s no readily-available market price and they carry more risk than the publicly traded REITs. Finally, private REITs are exempt from SEC registration, making their performance hard to discern and carrying even higher risk. They carry investment minimums to the tune of $25,000 and are typically open only to accredited investors with a net worth well over $1 million deemed qualified to invest in sophisticated securities.
FundRebel is a publicly traded REIT, and our entire platform is based on opportunities that are open to all and transparent. Forget just the rich getting richer, middle class workers are invited to participate in the game too.
“Be a risk taker; however, define risk by your own terms.”
-Sam Zell
The Safest Form of Investing
While every type of investing carries its own risk, private real estate is historically the safest place to put your money. By putting funds into a resource that feeds into commercial real estate, your money will have preservation and stability to it in a highly inflation-driven market. It’s a way to progress from owning a couple of stocks and accounts to owning a piece of real, true property.
Of course, there are various other ways to invest your money, yet in today’s economy, the return rate on your dollars is on the skinny side. Here are some of the ways you may have considered investing your money:
- High-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit (CDs)
- Funds (money market, mutual, index, or exchange-traded)
- Bonds (government or corporate)
- Stocks (dividend or individual)
- Cryptocurrencies
- Gold & silver…
…and the list goes on. Yet with some of these investment options, the value of your cash can erodes in a moment. With REITs, your money is collateralized with real property. With real estate being the oldest form of investing (property ownership in the Middle Ages, to the Louisiana Purchase, to the enactment of REIT legislation in 1960), it’s definitely worth a closer look.
If we want to identify the absolute best investment we can make today, the best place we can put our hard-earned cash, we should turn to the millionaires who have already made themselves an empire. They’ve been asked. And their answer is simple: real estate is still the best investment we can make today.
REITs Are a Win-Win Investment
REITs are not only good for your wallet, but they also help build local communities through new development. The run-down strip mall, the abandoned school building both have the potential to be renovated and get prettied up for their new life as something income-generating. Middle class workers aren’t typically afforded the luxury of plopping down hundreds of thousands of dollars and the time off to flip commercial properties like these, but now we can choose to be part of converting something old into something new and making money off of it.
Not only financially smart, it’s also emotionally satisfying.
FundRebel vs Other Platforms
If you google real estate crowdfunding investment platforms you’ll come across a plethora of options. What’s the difference between all of them and FundRebel?
Great question.
FundRebel affords you the opportunity to become an owner in real property and direct the future of real estate investing.
While these other platforms are nice, they’re backwards-facing. An opportunity is discovered, then money is raised for that property, the funds are gathered, a check is issued to renovate the property, and the property is renovated and the cycle is closed and dividends paid.
Alternatively, FundRebel is forward-facing with direct ownership and access to short-term liquidity. We open up various funds you can contribute to (purchase shares of) with a specific dollar cap. Once that cap is reached, we leverage the cash with debt financing to get triple the deployable capital to buy assets and acquire a robust real estate portfolio. You then journey along with us as we add value to the property (rewiring electric, choosing paint colors, updating fixtures…) and then maximize occupancy to increase asset revenue. Those funds pay your quarterly dividends (that funnel right into your bank account), and we continue managing the properties as they appreciate until it's time to sell them for profit, liquidating them to distribute the money among shareholders.
What are the top reasons to choose FundRebel?
- It’s SEC approved & qualified
- You can own a piece of real property with just an initial $1000 investment
- It’s straightforward and simple from account setup to investment
- Access to industry leaders who are already successful developers and investors
- It’s a future-facing investment platform to invest in assets, not just projects
- We are dedicated to delivering ongoing education
- It’s an engaging online social community for investors to learn and grow.
And the #1 reason to choose FundRebel?
The number one reason to choose FundRebel is because this is just the beginning to large-scale investing that crosses borders and pushes limits, enabling you to be intricately involved in ownership of assets you never thought possible.
Join us for the journey.
“Ninety percent of millionaires got their wealth by investing in real estate.”
- Andrew Carnegie
