Concreit Review

Concreit Ratings at a Glance

Why Invest in Real Estate?

You might wonder if real estate investing is right for you. If you don't have experience in it or don't have a lot of money in your savings account, it might not be an option you've explored yet. 

Income Potential

Income-producing real estate provides the opportunity for cash-flow generation in addition to potential equity appreciation. Depending on the investment, income could be paid out on a monthly, quarterly or more infrequent basis. 

Concreit has streamlined distributions and typically provides weekly dividend payments that get automatically reinvested to compound.

Hedge Against Inflation

Real estate has historically appreciated in value, which can make it a good hedge against inflation. Many of the homes that were negatively impacted back in the 2008 bubble burst have returned to their pre-crash prices in less than a decade, and can give potential market-adjusting income on rents. 

Helps Diversify Your Portfolio

Diversifying your portfolio has been viewed as a smart decision for many investors. Putting all your eggs in one basket is very risky because you could lose everything. When you invest in multiple assets, you reduce the risk of a total loss and increase your chances of larger capital gains. Real estate can be a great way to discover lower correlation to the publicly traded markets.

Concreit: A High-Tech Platform Designed to Make Real Estate Investing Easy

When it comes to investing, very few offerings excite the imagination like a well-run real estate investment trust (REIT). REITs are funds that buy real estate-related assets in several geographic markets to diversify and spread risk while maximizing profit. Typically REITs focus attention on income property (apartment buildings, office parks, storage facilities) or mortgage securities.

REITs raise money from investors to purchase these assets and then pay investors a dividend based on how well the assets perform. But the investor benefits don’t end there. In addition to the income, many investors are able to get an annual depreciation write-off based on the value of their REIT shares. 

A well-performing REIT is probably as close to a perfect investment as you can get. It offers appreciation opportunities, passive income and tax benefits with the added bonus of being backed by real estate. However, that’s where the other shoe falls for investors. Historically, buying non-traded REIT shares has been prohibitively expensive or only available to accredited investors, creating a near impenetrable barrier between REITs and retail investors.

Thankfully, cracks are beginning to appear in that wall. The Concreit investment platform allows real estate investors to buy REIT shares on a mobile-based investment app. Is it the right platform for you? Keep reading to find out.

How Does Concreit Work?

Concreit was devised by accomplished real estate investors with the idea of allowing everyone to benefit from REIT investments. The first thing it did was start a hybrid REIT fund, which means investors will be buying into a fund made up of both real estate assets and mortgage-backed securities. The assets in the portfolio are spread out across the country to minimize risk and maximize portfolio diversity.

Then, investors can download the Concreit app and create an account. Once they create their investor account, all they need to do is link a bank account to complete their first investment. The investment, which can be made for as low as $1, buys investors a proportional share of Concreit’s hybrid REIT.

The REIT pays out dividends to investors based on how much money they’ve put in. Needless to say, the higher the initial investment amount was, the higher the payout will be. However, Concreit has a program that allows investors to automatically reinvest their dividends. By doing this, even investors who begin buying small shares can benefit from compound investment growth.  

The platform pays dividends on a weekly basis, which really encourages users to participate in the Dividend Reinvestment Program (DRIP). The reality is that a weekly dividend payout on even a large investment is not likely to be enough for an investor to do anything but reinvest the money. 

So, by offering this weekly distribution, Concreit gives investors a little carrot to keep them moving with the investment. This weekly dividend approach contrasts markedly from most REITS, which only pay out on a quarterly or annual basis. In any case, between setting up auto investments and participating in the DRIP, investors can grow their Concreit portfolio without even thinking about it. 

Investor fees are kind of like parking tickets. They are an unpleasant fact of life, but the simple truth is that most cities couldn’t balance their books without them. By the same token, most investment platforms couldn’t balance their books without passing some administrative fees along to investors. After all, everything from accounting to compliance reporting and advertising has to be paid for and without investor fees, these expenses would eat directly into their dividends.

The good news with Concreit is that its fee structure keeps in line with the platform’s commitment to simplicity. Concreit charges a flat-rate annual fee of 1%, which goes to cover the platform’s administrative expenses. So, if your initial investment was $1,000, you’d be looking at a $100 annual fee. That’s about as painless as it gets when it comes to investor fees. Concreit currently has a rewards program where investors can earn $10 when they refer a friend that can potentially cover this fee. 

Concreit definitely fits into the easy-to-use category. Although Concreit has a desktop site, the only way you can actually use the site and begin investing is to download the mobile app. The Concreit app is available as a free download in both the Google Play store and Apple App store. 

In both cases, sign-up is easy and involves basic authentication of your mobile phone and email address. Linking bank accounts is really simple and so is making investments. Once you’re fully immersed in the app, your user dashboard is very clear and extremely easy to understand. Making adjustments such as upping the amount of your auto-invest or suspending your participation in the DRIP is all pretty straightforward. 

Considering that all of this is set up for a mobile phone or tablet, the platform deserves high marks for ease of use. Sometimes the transition from a web platform to the digital one creates headaches for users but in this case, there is no transition since you do all the heavy lifting on the mobile platform. 

Concreit’s designers have clearly spent a lot of time making sure the platform has a high level of functionality and usability. The 4.5-star rating here is well earned. Perhaps the only thing keeping Concreit from a 5 star rating is the lack of a desktop application. Investment platforms contain a great deal of sensitive information and some users may not feel comfortable accessing it on unsecured Wi-Fi or mobile networks. 

The Concreit platform is aimed squarely at retail investors or people who don’t fit the traditional profile of accredited investors. That means the platform must take extra steps to make sure its investor education is properly beefed up. After all, when you have a platform that accepts investments as low as $1, it’s very likely that many of your clients may not know what a REIT is, how it works or why they should invest in one. 

Concreit does an admirable job of investor education. The platform (and the desktop site) have a great knowledge base that features several topics for users to dive into. Topics covered in section include the following:

• Getting started: Walks you through the signup process.
• Bank transfers and linking: Helps you through the process of setting up the bank account you’ll be using with Concreit.
• Investing: Provides a primer on real estate investing and your portfolio.
• Withdrawal program: Assists with the process of withdrawing your dividends.
• Investment Life Cycle: Demonstrates a typical Concreit investment and how it pays off
• Account management: Shows how to set up your account.
• Documents and taxes: Offers assistance with tax consequences and the kinds of documents Concreit will send you annually.
• Concreit Rewards Program: Breaks downs the ins and outs of Concreit’s investment incentives.
• FAQs: Answers common questions.

Each section has easy-to-understand answers and informative articles that will help investors understand how REIT investing works and how to manage their Concreit account.

Additionally, there is a live chat icon that appears whenever you go to the desktop site. 

Overall, Concreit provides a good education section. A series of Zoom lectures or a YouTube channel would be of great benefit. Concreit looks to be a mobile app, so a more visual approach to investor education would be a significant upgrade on the current setup. 

Concreit only has one offering, a hybrid REIT that holds a combination of income property and mortgage-backed securities. Competing real estate investment platforms will certainly have more offerings; however, few if any of them will be open to non-accredited investors. Additionally, not many other platforms allow people to buy in for as low as $1. 

It’s important to remember that Concreit was designed to be a platform that everyone can use. The truth is, it’s a miracle the platform’s founders were able to devise a REIT that people can buy into so inexpensively. So, while you won’t necessarily be blown away by the variety of offerings, the fact that it has an offering you can buy into for pocket change certainly makes up for that. 

Concreit is a relatively new platform and, because of this, lacks data to look at historical returns. However, the platform’s stated goal is to pay a preferred dividend of 5.5% to all its shareholders. While 5.5% is not necessarily an eye-popping return, it’s more than you’d earn in interest from a savings account and carries a lot less risk than buying stocks. 

Again, the important thing here is perspective. New investors and people who have previously been entirely locked out of REITs can put money into Concreit and potentially earn over 5% annually. When you take that into consideration, Concreit is a pretty good deal if it hits its investment goals. 

The major complaint most people have about investing in real estate outside of publicly traded REITs is the lack of liquidity. Most crowdfunded offering and non-traded REITs have minimum hold periods that can range from 3 to 10 years or more. 

While real estate is best suited as a long-term investment, Concreit realizes that things happen and there are times when its investors need access to their capital. Instead of waiting for the fund to sell assets, Concreit is often able to fund withdrawals through cash on hand, income from the assets, and return of principal when loans are paid off.

However, these sources of funds are irregular so withdrawals are sometimes delayed until funds are available to cover a request.

Real estate has been America’s preferred alternative investment for centuries. Unfortunately, the high price of real estate in today’s economy has threatened to put it out of the average investor’s reach. Concreit is one of many real estate investing platforms seeking to open the world of real estate investing up to everyone. 

Its unique, all-mobile approach, weekly payouts and $1 buy-ins all speak to the platform’s outreach efforts. The only question with Concreit is the investor's individual comfort level with a strictly mobile-based platform. However, even if mobile-only investing isn’t your cup of tea, the ability to buy into a REIT for only $1 might be enough incentive to get out of your comfort zone. 

Overall, Concreit is a good real estate investing platform with a unique customer focus. This 4-star platform is definitely worth taking a look at.

Frequently Asked Questions