Investing in Real Estate: Updated October 8, 2026. Originally published February 10, 2021.
Real estate still does what it has always done for patient capital: it can produce cash flow and, over a long hold, appreciation. What changed after 2021 is the path in. Higher rates, a commercial reset, and a run of redemption gates and sponsor failures sorted the early crowdfunding field. Some platforms scaled. Some shut the door on new subscriptions. A few never came back.
The legal pipes are the same ones the JOBS Act opened. Platforms list private real estate by using one of three exemptions:
- Reg D Rule 506(c) has no dollar cap. The issuer may generally solicit, but every purchaser must be an accredited investor, and the issuer must take reasonable steps to verify that status. The thresholds are still more than $200,000 in income ($300,000 joint) or more than $1 million in net worth, excluding a primary residence.
- Reg A+ (Tier 2) allows raises of up to $75 million in a 12-month period from both accredited and non-accredited investors, with audited financials and ongoing reporting. Non-accredited investors are generally capped at 10 percent of the greater of income or net worth.
- Reg CF allows raises of up to $5 million in a 12-month period from anyone, but only through a single FINRA-registered funding portal or broker-dealer. Investment limits apply to non-accredited investors.
These are illiquid securities. A redemption window, a quarterly repurchase plan, or a thin secondary market is not the same thing as an exchange. Several of the plans described below have already been suspended.
Open to accredited and non-accredited investors
Fundrise remains the scale player. The old single-property and eREIT pitch has given way to diversified funds. The Flagship Real Estate Fund, a 1940 Act interval fund, reported about $1.0 billion in net assets as of October 8, 2026, with a $10 minimum, a portfolio of single-family rentals and industrial space, and quarterly repurchase offers capped in practice near 5 percent of shares. The Income Real Estate Fund is the yield sleeve. Anyone can invest. The tradeoff showed up in the last cycle: the Equity eREIT suspended redemptions on October 1, 2025, and an April 2026 consolidation paused them again. Interval-fund repurchases are offers, not a right.
Groundfloor is still the short-term debt specialist, and still the clearest Reg A+ pioneer in the category. Investors fund first-lien loans to house flippers, typically 6 to 18 months, or buy notes. The minimum is $10 per loan. Groundfloor has long cited roughly 10 percent historical annualized returns since 2013. That is interest taxed as ordinary income, and loans can default. There is no secondary market. Capital comes back when the loan pays off.
Arrived was not on the 2021 list. It sells fractional equity in individual single-family rentals and vacation homes under Reg A+, plus a private-credit fund, with a $100 minimum and no accreditation requirement. Investors pick the property. Holds run several years. A redemption program and a limited secondary venue exist, but neither is guaranteed. Sourcing and property-management fees sit on top of a small asset-management fee, so the net dividend is the number that matters, not the gross rent.
Ark7 also sells shares in individual rental homes, through SEC-qualified Reg A Tier 2 series LLCs, at about $20 a share. Non-accredited investors can participate, subject to Reg A limits. The manager is paid from sourcing and a share of distributable cash rather than a classic AUM fee. Liquidity is limited to whatever redemption or resale program is actually open.
Small Change remains a FINRA-registered funding portal (NSSC Funding Portal LLC) and the niche Reg CF shop for urban, affordable, and community real estate. Offerings are project-level, often paired with a 506(c) side for accredited checks, and minimums are commonly around $1,000. A North Minneapolis shopping-center raise and other 2026 filings show the portal is active, not archived. The Reg CF $5 million cap, in place since the March 2021 increase, makes these deals viable. Track record disclosure is thinner than on the Reg A fund platforms. Read the Form C.
Concreit is a small Reg A+ income fund, with a stated minimum as low as $1 and a mix of real estate debt and equity. It is still filing and still taking money, but the book is modest: the fund’s first-half 2026 report showed redemptions outpacing new subscriptions. Size it accordingly.
Republic still hosts the Real Estate marketplace page built after the 2020 Compound acquisition, and Compound Real Estate Bonds II is a live Reg A debt program. The old single-property listing business is mostly historical. Treat Republic as a general funding portal that sometimes lists property deals, not as a dedicated real estate platform.
Accredited investors only, Reg D 506(c)
EquityMultiple still lists commercial debt and equity for verified accredited investors. Alpine Notes, short-term senior debt, start around $5,000. Equity deals and funds sit higher, often $10,000 to $20,000. On August 1, 2026, EquityMultiple, Inc. licensed the brand and platform to Larson Acquisitions, LLC, and Larson Capital Management now runs day-to-day operations. Offerings remain private placements. Holds on equity are typically five to seven years, with no secondary market.
CrowdStreet is still operating, now branded Crowd Street, and still accredited-only, with minimums around $25,000. It is not the 2021 marketplace. Nightingale CEO Elie Schwartz was sentenced in May 2025 to 87 months over roughly $62.8 million raised through CrowdStreet deals. A related class action remains in litigation and arbitration. The firm has since required third-party escrow on single-sponsor deals and shifted a large share of the shelf toward institutional private-market funds. Underwrite the sponsor, not the logo.
RealtyMogul still runs an accredited marketplace for single-asset private placements, funds, and 1031 exchange programs under Reg D, generally at $25,000 to $35,000. The two Reg A vehicles that opened the platform to everyone, MogulREIT I and MogulREIT II, stopped taking new subscriptions on July 11, 2025. Both share-repurchase programs were suspended on April 21, 2026. NAVs are well below original offering prices. Existing REIT holders should treat those shares as illiquid until a filing says otherwise.
AcreTrader and FarmTogether are the farmland equivalents of the commercial 506(c) marketplaces. Both sell deal-level interests in farms to verified accredited investors, typically at $10,000 to $25,000 on AcreTrader and $15,000 and up on FarmTogether, with holds of five to ten years. AcreTrader is now part of Proterra. Cash yield plus land appreciation is the thesis. There is no exchange exit.
Cardone Capital raises multifamily funds under both Reg A+ (the Non-Accredited Fund, units from $100) and Reg D 506(c), with much higher minimums. It belongs on a sourcing list because the offerings are live. It also belongs on a caution list: a certified class action over earlier equity funds is headed toward a 2027 trial, and the firm’s own filings have not shown a completed property sale across the fund book.
