In 2014 the crowdfunding industry raised $10 billion of capital from the crowd, in funding creative projects, startups, donations, personal loans, and real estate. Real estate crowdfunding represents one of the fastest growing segments of crowd capitalism, Massolution, estimates an increase of 2.5X over 2014, reaching $2.5 billion in 2015.
Numerous platforms were launched over the past couple of years to enable investors from around the world to invest in real estate. iFunding is one of those platforms that is available for providing access to real estate with institutional quality, but is the first company to launch a real estate crowdfunding app. Being the first real estate crowdfunding app in the market – deserves our full attention and requires an evaluation.
Taking into account that iFunding or any crowdfunding platform in real estate are only able to offer investment opportunities to people that are accredited investors it is tough to give a final verdict about this app. An accredited investor is the one that have a net worth, excluding their homes, of at least $1 million or an annual salary of at least $200,000 if single and $300,000 if a couple. That means that this is an app is not expecting to have millions of downloads and to fall into the category of one of the most useful apps in the market. However, for savvy investors, the iFunding app may earned that coveted spot on their phone home screens.
The main highlights and benefits of this app are:
- Facilitates the registration process;
- Let you brows the investment opportunities and main Q&A’s;
- Complete an investment transaction entirely from the app;
- Monitor the progress of the project and receives financial statements.
Some recommendations…
- Include a section with educational content and track record of past investments.
- Add social media icons to share or invite friends to download the app.
- Allow users to register using existing social media accounts.
- Introduce the user with engaging content. Try always to tell a story and then give reasons of why should I invest in real estate projects.
- Add “contact us” section or give to the user the option to call with one click.