Time Challenge

Letting the Future Tell the Truth: What’s Ahead For Real Estate Crowd funding.

 

- AdaPia d'Errico

The inventor Nikolas Tesla once said we should “let the future tell the truth” about the present. In other words, with hindsight, we’d be able to look back on the “work and accomplishments” that got us there.

But the future arrives faster than ever, which is certainly true for crowd funded real estate (RECF). After its fast, paradigm-shifting start in the wake of the JOBS Act a few years ago, what does the future hold?

Can it continue to disrupt traditional channels of lending, as well as the parameters of neighborhood renewal and revival? And what of the platforms themselves? As laws and regulations keep changing, how will they respond? Can they keep from being co-opted by more traditional players and institutions, or will they arrange strategic partnerships with them? Or, will larger financial institutions adopt and deploy technology quickly enough to take the early disruptors out of the game?

Some of the key themes in the future that will “tell the truth” about where we’ve been—once we get there—will break down into a few major categories:

PUTTING TECH IN FINTECH

Like so many of the crowd funding platforms themselves, the term “fintech” seems to have arrived in the wake of the JOBS Act. But, beyond ease of use and an online experience, where does the “tech” add substantial value?