Most Listened to Podcast On LinkedIn

My friend Yonah Weiss is one of the most effective communicators on LinkedIn and he asked me a favor which I’d like to extend to you, if I may.

Apparently, the podcast he recorded with me – you can access it here – is “the most downloaded by far” of his podcasts so he tells me, and he’s running a contest with other guests to try to beat me from the top spot. He’s going to donate $1,000 to a charity of their choice to the ultimate winner by Oct 1.

If you get a chance, please listen to the podcast for one primary reason, apart from participating in an interesting LinkedIn challenge; you’ll get a practical guide to digital marketing best practices.

I’ll let you know the outcome of the challenge once it’s over in early October.

And now we return to our regular programming… news and commentary.

New Crowdfunding Platform Deals

Productive farmland continues to fascinate investors who are looking to diversify their real estate holdings away from traditional residential and commercial properties. If this sounds like something that you might be interested in, consider taking a look at The Brown Oak Farm, a 524-acre property nestled in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, in Owyhee and Gem Counties. The farmland-focused real estate crowdfunding platform recently hosted a webinar with pertinent details of the multi-crop property which you can catch here.

If farmland isn’t your thing, or you’re in the market for something a little shinier, you might want to take a gander at The Moxy Miami, a soon-to-be constructed, 120-room Marriot-branded hotel, on offer over at CrowdStreet. This Marriot-branded hospitality property offers up a ground-floor signature restaurant, rooftop pool deck, and two-story lounge club- all located within the bustling Wynwood neighborhood in Miami.

The Moxy Miami has a targeted investor IRR of a whopping 31.6%, a 2.3x targeted equity multiple, a targeted average cash yield of 27.4%, and a targeted investment period of 4 years. Check out The Moxy on CrowdStreet via this link.

General Crowdfunding Industry News

This week, we’re going to look at a story that highlights the way entrepreneurs, developers, investors, and other stakeholders are using real estate crowdfunding to fundamentally change their communities for the better.

When you look at who owns buildings in your town or city you’ll find that many developments, large and small, are owned by investors from across the country, or even across the globe. But if you’re a follower of the newsletter, real estate investor, or crowdfunding professional, you knew that already. There are pros and cons to the global nature of real estate markets, and one common issue that arises is the limited focus on the part of investors in the long-term viability of local community developments with the legacy real estate financial model as part of the investing process.

Crowdfunding has the power to change that – by giving locals a direct ownership stake in their communities – and the ability to guide development that fosters sustainable, long-term growth, rather than focusing on short-term profits. This new way of doing things isn’t exclusively the province of urbanites or progressive thinkers- as evidenced by the recent efforts of residents of the small town of Castroville, Texas, outside of San Antonio. The nonprofit San Antonio Reporter recently spoke with these residents and discussed their plans for locally-funded real estate development and how they intend to use real estate crowdfunding to protect and grow their local community. Read it here.

Crowdfunding Platform Updates

Finally, we’re going to look at some new developments with crowdfunding platforms Modiv and Fundrise.

Modiv, the crowdfunding platform formerly known as Rich Uncles, recently proposed an underwritten public offering of 1.4 million shares of Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock, aka Series A Preferred Stock. Underwriters for the deal are expected to be granted a 30-day option to buy up to 210,000 additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock. The application for the share listing requests the ticker symbol MDVA on the NYSE.

The firm plans to contribute the net proceeds from the offering to its operating partnership in exchange for a new class of preferred units, with economic interests substantially similar to the preferences, designations, and other rights of Series A Preferred stock. Additionally, Modiv intends to use the net proceeds from this contribution for general corporate purchases, such as the acquisition of additional real estate assets.

Fundrise recently reported strong appreciation on a Jacksonville, FL apartment renovation that’s been underway for a little under two years, giving credence to the firm’s belief that affordable rental housing in the Sunbelt will generate consistent, strong returns for investors. After improving the property and the income generated by the property the company was able to secure a supplemental loan of roughly $12.9 million, allowing them to pull out $7.3 million of their initial $13.2 million investment. During this process, they found that the lender’s appraisal found a 48% increase in the value of the property over the original purchase price- not a bad return at all.

Learn more about their success directly from the horse’s mouth at Fundrise, here.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter but don’t worry, we’ll be back next week. Until then.