FUNDAMENTALS
TECH
Democratizing Real Estate
THE NEED FOR TECHNOLOGY IN THE INVESTOR PROCESS
by Ellis Hammond
“Why Do You Make It So Hard For People To Invest In Your Deals?” A business mentor asked me this question in 2019. After showing him our investor process, he asked why there were so many hoops that people had to jump through before being able to invest. Of course, I blamed it on regulations and the “this is how it has always been done” excuse. But what I really didn’t want to admit was that I, like the rest of our industry, was hesitant
to change and was lagging behind the tech and innovation curve. For so long, the acquisition of large commercial assets had not been made accessible for everyday investors. But the Jobs Act of 2012 made crowdfunding a new reality and opened the door for everyday investors to participate in large, syn- dicated real estate deals. This also meant that many new platforms had to rise to the occa- sion in order to make it possible for investors to have access to sponsors
and vice versa. However, what I see is that many real estate sponsors are still lagging way behind in the imple- mentation of this new technology and software. As a Millennial, I do most things from my phone. I check emails, look at social media, order my lunch, and even invest in assets like stock and crypto. I see a current oppor- tunity and huge demand for real estate sponsors to start making their investment process fit the behavior of their investors.
26 | think realty magazine :: august 2021
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