Real Estate Crowdfunding and Social Good

Mike: Welcome back to the FlipNerd.com REI classroom where experts from across the real estate investment industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.

AdaPia: Hi, I’m AdaPia d’Errico and I’m the Chief Marketing Officer at Patch of Land and I’m your host today on the REI classroom, and today’s subject is three ways that real estate crowdfunding promotes social good.

Mike: This REI classroom real estate lesson is sponsored by uglyopportunities.com.

AdaPia: A few months ago, I gave a little primer on how real estate crowdfunding is actually rebuilding communities and revitalizing neighborhoods and the perspective that’s not often talked about because we always talk about the business perspective.
So I want to touch on it again from the social good aspect and it does encompass community development and revitalization and job creation. But truly when I think about social good, I also think about attitudes. I think about the way that we operate today as a society and thanks to the Internet we’re given the opportunity to seek out more information and to make more informed decisions.
I really feel like real estate crowdfunding allows people to do that. It gives you more opportunities to seek out information and make an informed decision, especially if you are a real estate investor, especially if you are seeking capital and you’re sort of out of options on the way you usually do things.
What’s really interesting to me about that in the context of social good is that we don’t often talk about the good work and the social work that’s being done by real estate investors and the impact you are having on your neighborhoods and your communities. I think it’s incredible work that’s being done and it needs to be talked about more.
We try and do that a lot at Patch of Land. I think it’s really important for also the lenders, those investors, the ones bringing in the capital to know and feel good that they’re contributing funds to people that are making a difference. Usually we think about philanthropy when we think about making a difference or charitable contributions, but it’s not always about that. There’s a big movement, one that’s been gaining momentum which is impact investing, and I see social good and impact investing very much working together in today’s world.
There’s no reason why we can’t put funds to good use and funds to working use doing good while making a return, and that’s really what this is about. When you break it down, investors, the lender investors, are making a return and the borrower, the REI investors on this hand, you’re also making a return, but the biggest return actually is the return you’re giving back to that community and having revitalized a home and a family that might not have been able to live there anymore can now live there.
I’ve seen examples of this with certain celebrities like LeBron James. He rehabbed a home in his home town and there was a young couple with a baby that went to live there. It was this great story and it’s okay, it’s LeBron James, he’s a big dude, he can rehab the house. But what’s really incredible is that it was actually all part of his charity. It doesn’t have to be, right? Because with real estate crowdfunding, we’re doing that exact same thing but without it being a charitable contribution.
So I would really invite people to think about how what they’re doing has a social good component. That component actually speaks a lot to how you as a real estate investor actually market yourself and that’s another topic that we spoke about before is telling a story and every home that’s rehabbed has a story. Everybody wants to be part of a happy ending kind of a story.
So I truly believe that there is so much social good in real estate crowdfunding and I’m really proud to be part of a company that enables and facilitates that for people across the country. So if you have any thoughts about that, I’d love for you to share that with me and tell me how you think that social good is actually happening in the work that you do. So thanks a lot for being part of the REI classroom with me and home to see you soon.

Mike: HomeVestors, the We Buy Ugly Houses folks, is a franchised systems of hundreds of real estate investors that have purchased over 65,000 houses. If you’d like to learn more about the most powerful real estate investing system in existence, whether you’re a pro looking to take your business to the next level, or whether you have no experience at all but a burning passion to be a successful real estate investor, please visit FlipNerd.com/ugly to learn more.
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