Friday marked a big win for entrepreneurs and the everyday consumer when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3-1 for the next step in equity crowd funding. The approval of Title III of the JOBS Act is a long-awaited ruling that has both experts and consumers talking about the impact it will have on our country’s economy—and the real estate market.
Once the ruling goes into effect, companies can be financed by anyone with the cash to opt in, without undergoing the public registration process. This is a huge move, as it’s the first time in the history of the SEC (that’s 82 years!) that retail investors—otherwise known as your everyday joe–will be able to invest in private businesses.
So how will this impact the real estate market? Below, three industry experts weigh in on what the ruling will mean for our economy, and the $2.5 billion real estate crowdfunding industry.
Scott Picken, author of Property Going Global and CEO and founder of Wealth Migrate, the 10th largest global real estate crowdfunding platform.
“I don’t believe there is going to be a catalytic change overnight, but this will have a catalytic affect in the long term. The bottom line is that the wealth gap, the difference between the have’s and the have not’s, is the greatest challenge we have on the planet, and it is only getting worse. Now with technology and this change in legislation, the bottom 99 percent will have the same access to the same opportunities and partners as the top 1 percent. What most people don’t understand is that this will have a big impact in America, but a far greater impact in the emerging world. This is going to change the real estate industry forever and also put a case forward to a global change in legislation.”
Marshall Saunders, co-founder and managing partner of SaundersDailey, a real estate crowdfunding platform connecting investors to residential real estate opportunities in select markets throughout the Midwest.
“ is not as wide open and accepting of non-accredited investors as I had hoped for. But it’s a start. We will make the best out of the rules and will consider it a toe in the door. With good results, and consumer demand, we will see that door opening wider and wider in the coming years. The bottom line is that non-accredited investors now have a way of participating in equity crowdfunding. It will change the way America invests, both in business startups and real estate. The wait has been hard, but understandable. The U.S. Congress has no idea the magnitude of what it was dumping on the SEC when it passed the JOBS Act in 2012. Given that fact, the SEC has done the best that they can to move this forward.”
Doug Ellenoff, corporate and securities attorney at Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP, and co-founder of iDisclose
“Title III was never intended to have a competitive impact on the established markets. By design it’s intended to enable entrepreneurs and real estate sponsors that have had difficulty raising much-needed capital from traditional channels to be able to do so more efficiently from individual investors, which is precisely what it will facilitate and make a meaningful impact on for those that access this new ecosystem.”
Only time will tell exactly how Title III will impact real estate, but it seems as if times are changing, 3-1.
