The online real estate investing market is poised for even greater growth this year than ever before.
How do we know that? Because you told us so. We here at CrowdStreet would like to thank everyone who participated in our inaugural Annual Investor Survey. Your thoughtful, detailed responses to our questions not only help us guide the future of our platform but act as a barometer for the present and future health of the industry.
About the Survey
Since our company’s founding in 2013, we have watched online real estate crowdfunding transform into a multibillion-dollar industry with sustained, year over year growth. The industry is still in its early days, however, and there’s still more to learn about the investors whose choices and preferences shape this flourishing, dynamic market. That consideration was the genesis of the CrowdStreet Annual Investor Survey. Our aim was to find out, directly from investors active in our Marketplace, what motivates an individual’s decision to invest in a commercial real estate (CRE) project, as well as what we could be doing to improve our users’ experience. We see surveys like this as essential components in our ongoing efforts to deliver the best, most full-featured platform in the CRE crowdfunding space.
How We Are Using Your Feedback
Based on your responses, we will be implementing the following new features and changes to the CrowdStreet real estate crowdfunding platform:
- Investor Forums: A majority of respondents told us they would like more ways to discuss investments with other active CrowdStreet users. Taking this feedback into consideration, we will be rolling out discussion forums designed to facilitate discussion among investors, as well as more communication between investors and sponsors.
- A New Dashboard: A number of respondents said they would like to see additional investments dashboard functionality, and several respondents informed us that their dashboards did not accurately reflect their activity in the Marketplace. We are therefore redesigning the My Dashboard experience to allow you to better manage your investments.
- Real-time Listing Updates: Many respondents mentioned that they would appreciate being able to see, at a glance, the level of funding each deal has currently reached. Accordingly, we are adding features to individual offerings to make it easier to see which are close to being fully funded.
Those of you who completed the survey submitted many ideas for new features, and we’re taking all users’ feedback into consideration as we continue to tweak and upgrade our platform. If you don’t see your requested feature here, there’s a good chance it will show up in a future update.
The Big Picture for the CRE Crowdfunding Industry
One ancillary benefit of the survey, as I alluded to above, is that it also provides insight into larger economic trends. Survey results forecast an immensely positive outlook for 2018—more than 80% of investors expect to invest as much or more than they did last year—but indicate that the bar has been set higher for CRE firms. We learned that investors demand accountability and expertise from the people and organizations with whom they do business. We also learned why quality is the first thing any investor looks for, how our users rate themselves in terms of experience, why ease of use is as important as the particulars of a listing, and what investors need from sponsors in order to establish lasting trust.
Thank You!
Once again, we sincerely thank everyone who participated in the inaugural CrowdStreet Annual Investor Survey. As a token of our appreciation, we would like to share the results with you. Please fill out the form below to access your free report. If you didn’t get a chance to participate and would like to send us your feedback, please click here to get in touch with us. And stay tuned for the invitation to participate in the next annual survey!
