Founded in 2013, CrowdStreet is one of the most established real estate crowdfunded sites, with over 732 deals funded – for a total of $3.9 billion invested –and thousands of investors worldwide.
CrowdStreet started as an alternative for investors to invest in diversified portfolios of real estate properties.
CrowdStreet is among the best platforms for accredited investors looking for very profitable short- and long-term opportunities and the minimum investment is $25,000. CrowdStreet has been recognized by Investopedia and other ranking sites as the Best Overall Real Estate Crowdfunding Site for three years in a row.
In this quick CrowdStreet summary, I will go over all the best features of this platform. If you want to read a more in-depth analysis, check out our full CrowdStreet review.
Pros & Cons of CrowdStreet
Pros
Invest in pre-made portfolios of real estate properties
7%-25% annualized returns
Freely available educational resources
Monthly cash distributions
Investors don’t have to pay extra fees
Request a personalized, tailored portfolio
Cons
$25,000 minimum investment
Available for accredited investors only
Browse Individual Deals In The CrowdStreet Marketplace
As a CrowdStreet visitor, you can access all the basic information of all offerings in the marketplace. Some information available includes property type, location, investment profile, minimum investments, and investment horizon.
Most properties in the CrowdStreet marketplace have a minimum investment of $25,000, but some of the most profitable options may have higher minimums.
If you’d like to access more detailed information on all the properties listed, you must sign up for a free CrowdStreet account. You can also access some information on old offerings to get an idea of historical performances and how much you can expect, depending on the property type.
Investment Opportunities For All Types Of Investors
Whether you’re a beginner looking for your first deal or an experienced investor: CrowdStreet offers three easy ways to participate in the real estate market. Before you start, we recommend checking our starter’s guide – How does crowdfunding in real estate work? Without further ado, here are the three types of investments CrowdStreet offers:
Diversified Funds are a great option to diversify your investments and gain exposure to the real estate market safely. For these, the minimum investment is $25,000, and it’s our recommendation for beginners.
For more experienced investors, there are Tailored Portfolios. With Tailored Portfolios, you can focus on specific real estate market segments and get a specialized fund. It has a narrower scope compared to regular funds. Still, it can be more profitable at the cost of diversification, so we recommend it for investors with some experience.
Lastly, there are Individual Deals. Like diversified funds, the minimum investment is $25,000. Individual Deals can be accessed directly from the CrowdStreet Marketplace. We recommend these for investors who already have other investments in real estate and are looking to add some diversification.
CrowdStreet Historical Performance
Since it was launched in 2014, CrowdStreet has funded 732+ deals, invested more than $3.9 billion, and realized 151+ deals. The expected returns will depend on your risk profile – safer investments have lower yields, so it’s usually a good idea to mix strategies. With CrowdStreet, you can choose from four strategies: core, core-plus, value-add, and opportunistic.
Core and core-plus investments are the safest, with low to moderate yields. Opportunistic is the most profitable and riskiest, with a yearly target IRR of 19%-25%. Keep in mind that the timeframes for opportunistic and value-add investments are 5-7 years.
CrowdStreet Fees
Account Setup Fees: Free
Investor Fees: Free
Servicing Fees: Free
CrowdStreet doesn’t charge investors fees – instead, they charge sponsors a fee for listing their properties. Sponsors, in turn, shift some of these servicing & technology fees to their investors and usually include it in the initial investment of $25,000.
Sign-Up Process
Anyone can register and create a CrowdStreet account, but the company mainly focuses on US citizens. There are no special requirements to create an account; you only need your name, a valid address, and banking information to purchase a subscription.
Visit CrowdStreet’s website
Click Get Started (or Join CrowdStreet on the top right)
Fill in some of your basic information
If you use this link to sign up, you’ll immediately access all data sheets and valuable information for each investment, including past returns, payment schedules, and more.
CrowdStreet Trustpilot Reviews
CrowdStreet has decent user reviews, with an average rating of 3.4 on Trustpilot. Here’s what some of those users have to say about CrowdStreet:
“Good site to find private equity deals. However, you need to do YOUR due diligence. CS is a marketplace for deals, and although they have its process to filter out sponsors, they do not undertake the risk; you do. Unlike Costco, you can return a defective product to the store vs. the manufacturer. Look around the site, review track records.” – Ali L.
“CrowdStreet is one of the best commercial real estate crowdfunding platforms available today. CrowdStreet’s sponsor screening, quality investment offers, document signing process, etc., are second to none. However, their customer service response time and interface, oversubscribed investment offers oversight, transparency, etc. needs improvement..” – Mike I.
“CS was a “Great Idea” since the beginning. Even though I have been in real estate for over 15 years, I found this service exceptional. I already have a dozen projects with CS..” – Ricardo I.
“This company is on a solid growth path to take over private real estate investment firms by offering smaller investment opportunities to their investors through crowd-funding. They do all the vetting and heavy lifting for you as an investor..” – Eric M.
If you are not entirely convinced that this particular service is for you, we recommend checking out some alternatives in our list of the best real estate crowdfunding platforms. If you’d instead try out a different type of investment exclusive for accredited investors, here’s our list of the best investment opportunities.
Final Thoughts
CrowdStreet is our top recommendation for accredited investors seeking exposure to the real estate market. With a reasonable minimum investment of $25,000, CrowdStreet offers access to a set of highly diversified, risk-adjusted real estate portfolios with four types of risk profiles for all kinds of investors. No matter your experience level or where in your investing path, CrowdStreet has got something for you.
Read more:
CrowdStreet Review 2023 – Invest In Commercial Real Estate
