As a new investor, you’re probably excited about (and maybe a little overwhelmed by) the wide range of investment opportunities available in the real estate investment world. But when you start digging in and realize that some deals are only available to specific classes of investors, it feels like a total slap in the face.
That slap starts to sting when you learn that there’s no online class or certification you can take to become “one of them.”
So, what then? How do you break the barrier and gain access to those same, exclusive opportunities?
Shout-out to All the Non-accredited Investors
If you’re not an accredited investor, and you’re reading this right now, I applaud your impressive level of awareness and determination.
As a newbie, you likely started researching “how to earn passive income” and “financial freedom how to,” but now you’ve become aware of this specific group of people who have access to some of the most lucrative real estate deals out there – accredited investors.
But you’re not accredited, so you’re barred from those deals, right? Well, kinda.
Leverage your assets and relationships well, and even as a non-accredited investor you can gain access to deals that earn passive income and build your investment portfolio toward achieving that coveted accreditation status and the exclusive deals that come with it.
At this point, instead of dreaming of “one day” when you finally get to invest, you’re determined to build your portfolio as a non-accredited investor with the expectation that soon you’ll break that barrier and become accredited.
So, high five. For real.
Investing in Real Estate When You’re Not Yet An Accredited Investor
Take this article as a bit of encouragement, because sure, finding out that some real estate opportunities are not available to you is disheartening. However, leverage your money and your connections well toward these diverse opportunities available to non-accredited investors, and you’ll become an accredited investor sooner rather than later.
Which is exactly what you’re going to learn today. Below, you’ll find 8 ways ANYONE can invest in real estate.
- Buy and hold rentals
- House hacking
- Fix-and-flips
- BRRRR Strategy
- Private Lending
- Joint Venture Partnerships
- Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
- Private Real Estate Syndications
None of these require you to be an accredited investor AND all of these can create passive income. While your goal may be to become accredited so you can have access to those exclusive deals, these types of investments *especially that last one* are the best ways to build toward that goal plus earn passive income along the way.
Buy and Hold Rental Properties
Most people are familiar with how having rental property works. You buy a home and rent it out.
The greatest perk to these types of investments is that you’re in charge. You can choose to manage it all yourself or hire a property management firm, you can choose when to buy and when to sell, and you get to decide on renovations. The alternate to this power though is the responsibility. Everything rests on your shoulders and when things go wrong that’s on you too.
Rental properties are definitely open to non-accredited investors, require a moderate level of work, and are long-term investments with a low-to-moderate risk.
House Hacking
House hacking is one way many people “accidentally” become landlords. They might find a place with an upstairs and downstairs unit, for example, and quickly decide to rent out one portion of the home.
That rental income helps pay for the mortgage on the property as a whole and voila!
This is a great option for real estate in a steeper-priced area, it is open to non-accredited investors, requires a moderate level of work, and is a long-term investment with low risk.
Fix-and-Flips
Oh, you like really detailed, hands-on investments? I’ve got the perfect thing for you!
A short-term purchase where you repair and remodel the property yourself and “flip” it (sell it for a profit) might be fun.
The downside is that it might take substantial capital to get started, especially if you’re in an expensive area. The cost to purchase the property, plus the value to fund the rehab, plus money to cover the mortgage payment until the property sells should all be set aside prior to making the deal.
You also face immediate market volatility and may have to hold the property longer than expected or sell for less than expected, which would cut into your potential profit.
Fix-and-flips require a high-touch hands-on presence and carry a higher risk than some other options presented in this article.
If you don’t want to be hands-on, you can also invest with a turnkey operator who will manage the entire process for you. Including finding a tenant for the property! One of my first investments was working with an operator who provided a turnkey opportunity in Memphis, TN.
BRRRR Strategy
The BRRRR strategy is a combination of the buy-and-hold and the fix-and-flip options. It stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat.
The first half of the strategy looks just like a fix-and-flip. You buy a property that needs some TLC and give the place a face-lift.
The second half of the strategy looks much more like a buy-and-hold. Once renovations are complete, you find tenants. Once rented, you do a cash-out refinance and repeat the process with another property.
Assuming after renovations were complete, the property’s value increased substantially, you may be able to pull all of your original capital. The BRRRR strategy is extremely powerful, open to non-accredited investors, requires a high level of work, and is a long-term investment option with moderate-to-high risk.
Private Lending
One side of real estate investing that can easily be overlooked is investing in debt. This is where you loan someone money to, say, complete a fix-and-flip. You don’t have to be hands-on in the home purchase, renovations, or home selling process, nor do you have to be an accredited investor.
Most beginner investors are still working full time. Combine that lack of time (but a surplus of money) with a cash-strapped go-getter ready to do all the dirty work, and you have a deal.
As an example, you could loan them the fix-and-flip money for 12 months at 10% interest. They turn the house around within the 12 month period, and you earn 10% on the loan. Your risk is relatively low because it’s backed by the property, your workload is low, and you don’t have to be accredited for these short-term investments.
Joint Venture Partnerships
If single-family homes spell B-O-R-I-N-G to you, multifamily or commercial real estate might pique your interest. If you also have the capital plus some skills to contribute, you might be a great potential joint venture partner.
A JV partnership is where a small group invests together and the property renovations and management tasks are split up between them. Each person has an active role with no passive investors.
This type of opportunity is open to non-accredited investors, has a high level of work, a moderate level of risk, and a flexible timeline depending on the project.
Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
Real estate crowdfunding platforms are much like Kickstarter, but for real estate. These platforms contain opportunities for a variety of projects from fix-and-flips to large-scale value-add multifamily projects.
You invest capital in exchange for a portion of the returns without having to do any of the work. Most of these types of opportunities are for accredited investors only. However, there are a few real estate crowdfunding sites that offer REITs (real estate investment trusts) for non-accredited investors.
REITs don’t give you the benefits of direct ownership, but they are great vehicles for passive investing and typically require low minimum investments with low risk and a low threshold of work involved.
Private Real Estate Syndications
Group investments where people pool their resources to invest in a large asset is a real estate syndication deal. At first glance, this may sound a lot like a joint venture situation. However, JV investors each have a specific, active role in managing the property. In a real estate syndication, most of the investors are passive – meaning they won’t be hands-on with the property renovations or making any big decisions.
Here’s the thing, most real estate syndications, per SEC regulations, are only open to an exclusive set of high-profile or accredited investors. However, there are some opportunities open to non-accredited investors.
That’s where you need to focus – on gaining access to those specific syndication deals available to non-accredited or sophisticated investors! So, how do you do that?
Well, since the opportunities for 506b opportunities can’t be publicly advertised, you have to know someone who’s part of a general partnership to get a foot in the door. This applies to both accredited and non-accredited investors.
This is where you have to be willing to network with people to find the connections who can give you the heads up about deals open to non-accredited investors. 506b opportunities allow up to 35 sophisticated investors.
The bells in your head should be ringing right now, because BlueDoor Equity, is a general partner in several real estate syndication deals per year. The trick is to follow the SEC’s guidelines. We have to establish a pre-existing relationship. Meaning, we should have a conversation about your finances and your investing goals.
The SEC requires that for me to share deals with you, you have to certify that you have “sufficient experience” and can weigh the risks and merits of an investment. Even if talking finances makes you nauseous (it’s not that scary, I promise), I can’t even share that an opportunity exists unless we have a conversation first.
It’s never too early to initiate our working relationship if our connection helps you toward your investment goals! These deals require a low level of work (research and connection upfront) and carry low risk as a long-term investment.
Takeaways
If you’re a newbie investor and, therefore, not accredited at this point, serious kudos to you! You’re reading this article exhibits serious ahead-of-the-curve-ness on the way to building passive income.
The 8 ways we examined today (out of the infinite number of possibilities) you can invest in real estate as a non-accredited investor are:
- Buy and Hold Rentals
- House Hacking
- Fix-and-flips
- BRRRR Strategy
- Private Lending
- Joint Venture Partnerships
- Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
- Private Real Estate Syndications
Realizing that certain opportunities are not available could get you down. But just because a deal is available to accredited investors, doesn’t mean it‘s that great and often, there are faster and more powerful ways for non-accredited investors to accumulate wealth through real estate, especially with some work.
If you’re ready to gain access to syndication deals available exclusively to my connections, join the BlueDoor Investor Club and schedule a call with me today so together, we can begin building your passive income.