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Fundrise is one of the best real estate investing apps because its highly diversified investments are great for passive investing.Jennifer Streaks, Senior Personal Finance Reporter & Spokesperson
About Fundrise
Headquartered in Washington, DC, Fundrise offers investors access to real estate projects throughout all 50 states. The platform also provides desktop and mobile access, allowing users to monitor asset growth and review market trends and project alerts.
As mentioned above, one thing to look out for is that — although you can cash out at any time — Fundrise's investments are designed for those with a minimum time horizon of five years. If you're looking for short-term investing, this isn't the platform for you.
The Fundrise mobile app is available on iOS and Android devices.
Is Fundrise Right For You?
Fundrise is available to both accredited and nonaccredited investors looking for the flexibility to cash out at any time. The platform is best for long-term investments with a five-year minimum. It's also great for investors wanting to diversify their investment portfolios with Fundrise IPOs and venture funds.
Moreover, the platform is suitable for both passive and active investors looking for access to either personally customize their own investment plans, or to benefit from Fundrise's automated investing features. You only need a
Fundrise: Overall Rating
| Features | Insider rating (out of 5) |
| Fees | 4.50 |
| Investment selection | 4.75 |
| Liquidity | 4.00 |
| Ethics | 5.00 |
| Access | 4.88 |
| Customer service | 4.00 |
| Overall score | 4.53 |
Fundrise Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
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With Fundrise you can cash out at any point even if you don't reach the five-year minimum. Many other real estate investing platforms will either charge you a penalty fee for cashing out early or restrict you from doing so.
Is Fundrise Trustworthy?
The BBB assigns its ratings by assessing company information from business and public data sources and reviewing any customer complaints filed against the company. These ratings tend to vary per investment app.
Fundrise hasn't elicited any major lawsuits or public scandals since its founding.
Ways to Invest With Fundrise
Fundrise-directed Plans
Fundrise offers automatic investing features so your money can be automatically invested in real estate projects and venture capital funds based on your current investment goals, risk tolerance, and other preferences. Fundrise-directed plans are best for hands-off or passive investors.
You can choose one of the three portfolio options:
- Supplemental income: Utilizes a larger percentage of income-focused assets rather than growth-focused assets.
- Balanced investing: Employs an equal blend of both income-focused assets and growth-focused assets.
- Long-Term Growth: Utilizes a larger percentage of growth-focused assets rather than income-focused assets.
Fundrise's growth-focused assets direct more attention to appreciation and pay less attention to dividends. For instance, for Long-Term Growth plans, Fundrise primarily uses growth eREITs and another asset called eREIT XIV.
All three plans also offer IRAs, auto-invest and dividend reinvestment, and discounts for referrals.
Depending on your goals, risk tolerance, and timing of expected returns you can choose one of Fundrise's real estate strategies to build a diverse, resilient portfolio.
Fundrise website
Fundrise Pro
Fundrise Pro is best for hands-on investors looking to personally customize their own investment plans. Pro members can directly invest in specific funds, pick and choose their ideal allocations, and update their portfolios as their goals change over time.
As a Pro member, you can also access expert-level data from Basis™ — Fundrise's proprietary property management data warehouse — and leading market research from John Burns Research and Consulting. Moreover, Pro members can access selective paywalled content from leading news sites like the Wall Street Journal.
Now is a great time to take advantage of Fundrise's new exclusive offer and try Fundrise Pro free for the first 30 days.
Self-directed IRAs
Fundrise partners with Millennium Trust Company to provide IRAs and digital investing solutions. You'll need to transfer an existing IRA in order to invest in real estate funds. Once you set up your account, you'll be able to invest in commercial real estate with eREIT products.
It's also important to note that Fundrise's IRAs are currently only eligible to invest in eREITs, not eFunds.
Investment Types
Fundrise lets you invest in real-estate dividends, Fundrise IPOs, real estate trusts, and venture capital. With Fundrise's Innovation Fund, retail investors can now invest in venture capital from high-growth private tech companies with a focus on modern data infrastructure.
With a Fundrise-directed account, you'll be investing in an equally allocated blend of the company's Growth eREITs and Income eREIT II. You'll earn returns through quarterly dividends and appreciation of share value.
Fundrise offers another investment option – itself. You can purchase shares of the company as long as you've got a Basic account level or higher. The firm says it plans to make its IPO available to account holders within their first year of investing.
Since Fundrise has a parent company, Rise Companies Corp., you'll be purchasing a stake in both Fundrise and Rise.
Fundrise Fees
As for fees, you'll pay an annual advisory fee of 0.15%, which means you would pay $1.50 for every $1,000 invested. This is low compared to similar platforms like Yieldstreet, which charges a 1% management fee and up to 0.5% annual administrative expense.
There's a
There's also an annual 0.85% management fee for Fundrise's real estate funds, which means you'll pay $8.50 for every $1,000 invested. To invest in the Innovation Fund, you'll pay an annual flat 1.85% management fee (you'll pay $18.50 for every $1,000 invested). Self-directed IRA accounts charge a 1% annual fee and $125 fee to Millennium Trust Company.
If you redeem any eREIT or eFund investment within a five-year period, you'll be subject to a 1% penalty fee (no fee in the first 90 days). There's a 0% to 2% acquisition fee when
Fundrise — Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the average return from Fundrise?
Fundrise returned 0.59% in Q1 2023.
Can you make money with Fundrise?
Is Fundrise better than a public REIT?
Usually, real estate investments (REITs) are often publically traded and can be easily liquidated through a brokerage platform. Fundrise REITs are privately traded or publicly non-traded investments and can take a much longer time to sell.
There's only a $10 investment minimum with Fundrise, which is cheaper than most publicly traded REITs. But Fundrise's fee may be higher overall.
How Fundrise Compares
Fundrise vs. CrowdStreet
If you're looking for a low-cost, automated platform that offers REITs, other inexpensive real estate funds, private credit, and venture capital, then Fundrise is a good choice.
Fundrise vs. Yieldstreet
Compared to Fundrise,
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed Fundrise
Real-estate investing apps generally offer user-friendly sites for education and market access. Some investing platforms are generally better for beginners or passive investors, while others are best for experienced and active traders. Fundrise was evaluated based on how well it performed in each category.