A Study on the History and Functionality of Real Estate Crowdfunding

Fundraising within the context of financial firms is an essential part of the functionality of any investment vehicle. While traditional real estate is one of the oldest forms of investing, the industry has since undergone a revolution, in which the every-day investor is attaining access to the arena in the form of crowdfunding. While many of these platforms highlight key structural advantages that will lead to growth and proliferation, it is important to take a deeper look into what the competencies are, and how they will induce change, if at all. To do this necessitates pursuing an in depth analysis of the inception and goals of the platforms, alongside an unbiased examination of their accomplishments and shortfalls thus far. Due to the infant nature of the platforms, interviews and first hand conversations were relied upon heavily in the analysis below. It is found that while real estate crowdfunding has achieved success within a few individual elements, the platforms as a whole have a long way to go, while the future brings both significant growth potential and powerful risk factors.