When looking to diversify your investment portfolio, real estate is one of the best options available, but it isn’t always easy to get started. Finding the right place to invest can be a challenge, but Arrived, RealtyMogul, and Roots make real estate investment easy with transparent online platforms that are both easy to use and easy to understand.

If you’re looking for more flexibility in your investments, Arrived may suit you best as you can purchase fractional investments in residential or vacation homes, or invest in a portfolio of residential properties.

RealtyMogul may be the best option if you’re looking for investments in both residential properties and commercial sector.

Roots may be the best choice for you if you’re interested in a residential focused real estate portfolio with fewer fees, a low minimum investment, and a fund that has a one-of-a-kind social impact on its renters.

Arrived Homes, RealtyMogul, and Roots all offer great ways to invest in real estate without the hurdles of things like property management or rent collection.

Below you'll find key points of Roots, Arrived's Single Family Rental Fund, and RealtyMogul's Income REIT, highlighting their differences across property type, minimums, fees, liquidity and average returns.

Property Type

Roots

Roots' REIT offers a portfolio of residential rental properties, single-family and small multi-family. Roots has a unique model where the residents of the properties get invested in the fund if they are good renters (pay rent on time, take care of the property, and are a good neighbor). This has led to low vacancy, low turn costs, and high returns for its investors, as you’ll see below.

Arrived Homes

Arrived offers three ways to invest: you can purchase a fractional share of a vacation rental, you can purchase a fractional share of a single family property, or you can invest in the Single Family Residential Fund, which will be the focus of this article.

RealtyMogul

RealtyMogul offers both accredited and non-accredited individuals the ability to invest in commercial, residential, and industrial individual properties for passive income and growth. The company also offers two REITs: a growth REIT and an income REIT. 

The main differences between the two are their respective investment strategies. The RealtyMogul Apartment Growth REIT targets investments in multifamily properties that offer value-add opportunities with the potential for value appreciation, while the RealtyMogul Income REIT targets investments in properties of all asset types with the goal of generating consistent cash distributions.

Minimum Investments, Fees, & Liquidity

Roots

Roots allows you to invest with a $100 minimum. Roots has a low fee structure, with only a $5 transaction fee for your first investment and a $3 transaction fee on any recurring investment. If you need to liquidate your investment before one year, there is a 6% early withdrawal fee, but there is no withdrawal fee after the one year point.

Roots distributes to investors quarterly, providing investors the option to reinvest or cash out their distributions at that point in time. Roots offer the ability to liquidate quarterly as well, $100k or up to 5% of the fund.

Arrived Homes

Investment in Arrived's Single Family Residential Fund has a 0.25% management fee and other potential fees which may include but are not limited to closing costs, offering costs, property renovations, sourcing fees, holding costs, operating expenses, and more. These investments are positioned as longer-term investments with a six-month holding period on withdrawals. For those who are looking to liquidate earlier than 5 years, there is a 1-2% cost associated with doing that.

RealtyMogul

Both of RealtyMogul’s REITs have a minimum investment of $5,000. However, their fees slightly differ.

For the Income REIT, organizational and offering costs are capped at 3%, with an asset management fee of 1%. There are no upfront selling commissions, and the servicing fee is 0.5%, which applies only to debt and preferred equity.

For the Growth REIT, organizational and offering costs are also capped at 3%, but the asset management fee is 1.25%. There are no upfront selling commissions, and the servicing fee is 0.5%, which applies only to preferred equity.

RealtyMogul is intended to be a long-term illiquid investments, however you can sell your shares back after you've owned them for one year.

Performance

All platforms have delivered returns to their investors with Roots generating some great returns.

Roots had an average annual return of 17.17% as of July 10, 2024 and has returned 51.5% from July 1, 2021- July 10, 2024.

Arrived’s average total historical returns for single family residential properties has ranged between 6-10%.

RealtyMogul’s Income REIT has a return of 4.3% over the last three years as of March 31st. Their Growth REIT has a return of 6.1% over the last three years as of March 31st.

At the time of updating this article, RealtyMogul has not provided an update of their returns.

Even though historically all three REITs have delivered returns to investors, it’s important to remember that past results do not determine future success. Risks are always present when investing your money, so it’s important to understand what those risks are before making your first investment.

Ready To Get Started? Invest With Roots

Imagine owning real estate where your renters wanted it to succeed as much as you do.

Start investing with as little as $100, and own a piece of the only REIT that creates wealth for both its investors and its residents. It took us years to build Roots, but you can invest in as little as 5 minutes.

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Sources

• Roots - Social Impact
• Roots - Performance
• Arrived - Why are homes held in a Series LLC
• Arrived - How does Arrived make money?
• Arrived - What fees do investors pay to property managers?
• Arrived - Arrived Single Family Residential Fund
• Arrived - What returns can I expect from Arrived properties?
• Arrived - Single Family Residential Fund
• Building RealtyMogul
• RealtyMogul Income REIT
• RealtyMogul Growth REIT
• RealtyMogul FAQ

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