Are we staring down an impending national liquidity crisis? 

The Thanksgiving season is almost upon us, and as always, we’re here to bring you all of the real estate crowdfunding stories, deals, platform updates, and podcasts you might have missed last week.

This week, we’ll shine a spotlight on a new deal corn and soybean farm deal, the Bluegrass Creek Farm at AcreTrader.

Moving on, we’ll look at why billionaire real estate investor Grant Cardone recently claimed that single-digit millionaires are the new middle class– and they’re not wealthy- they’re worried. In addition, we will also look at a recent statement from Fundrise CEO Ben Miller- who warns of an impending national liquidity crisis.

We will also cover the latest, greatest episode of The Real Estate Crowdfunding show, where Dr. Gower mines Matt Belcher, CEO and Co-Founder of Caltier, for valuable insights you can use to enhance your real estate investment strategy.

Let’s get into it.

New Crowdfunding Platform Deals

The Bluegrass Creek Farm is a 121-acre soybean and corn farm that sits in idyllic Vermillion County, Illinois. For investors, the farm boasts both high-productivity soils and the ability to add value to the project through capital improvements. It sits in a county with more than half a million acres, 90%+ of which are used in the service of corn and soybean production. 

It’s got more than 1,600 registered agricultural producers and is considered to be among some of the most farmland in the United States. Its 117 tillable acres are comprised of nutrient-rich silt loams and silty clay loams, which register an impressive 128/147 on the farm Productivity Index.

The deal has a total farm price of $1,298,330, a total acreage of 121 acres, a price per acre of $10,730, and an estimated ownership duration of 5-10 years. Head over to the Bluegrass Creek Farm on AcreTrader to learn more.

General Crowdfunding Industry News

It’s a scary time to be in the markets, real estate or otherwise. This fear is made all the more pronounced by a steady stream of clickbait titles lamenting the end of real estate as we know it. While you don’t want to dwell on bad news, it’s part of your duty as an investor to perform proper due diligence.

This brings us to two crowdfunding industry stories that definitely do not paint a rosy picture of our current situation.

Billionaire real estate investor Grant Cardone recently claimed that single-digit millionaires are the new middle class. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone that lives on the coast, or increasingly in many other parts of the country. Millionaires are a dime a dozen in suburban, rural, and urban communities across the US. Cardone remarks: “If you are a single-digit millionaire, you are not wealthy… you are worried,” Cardone said. “Millionaires are basically middle-class people who are worried about money.”

Do you think his logic holds up? See the rest of his argument at Yahoo Finance.

Crowdfunding Platform Updates

In another sign of the times, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller recently warned of an impending national liquidity crisis. He observes that $5 trillion of assert-backed lending now exists outside of banks- with more debt and less liquidity than in the past- with corporate borrowers having an astonishing 300% more debt than they did before the 2008 crash. 

Miller also believes that companies have a lot more debt in the system than most people realize and that many unregulated nonbank lenders, private equity funds, CMBS, and others in the space are involved in making loans that the banks can’t cover. Yahoo Finance did a nice writeup, but you can also find a full discussion with Fundrise CEO Ben Miller on the Fundrise Podcast, Onward, linked here and in the multimedia links list.

Multimedia Links (Videos, Podcasts, etc.)

Finally, let’s get into the newest episode of The Real Estate Crowdfunding show. 

This week, Dr. Gower speaks with Matt Belcher, CEO and Co-Founder of Caltier, a new entrant to the real estate crowdfunding platform space, catering to both accredited and non-accredited investors. Like other heavy hitters in the real estate crowdfunding world, Caltier uses Regulation A+, enabled by the 2012 JOBS Act, and sometimes referred to as “mini-IPOs.” 

The A+ Reg designation does require higher disclosure standards than other types of regulation crowdfunding, like investor-only Reg D, but Regulation A+ comes with a number of novel opportunities available to investors through platforms like Caltier. 

Give it a listen on Listen Notes here. Also, ever the gentleman, Matt asks that listeners forgive his “funny foreign accent,” but we know you’re a welcoming bunch, so we’re thinking that apology is unnecessary. 

That’s it for this week- but we’ll see you soon with more platform updates, crowdfunding news, new deals, and more! Ciao!