Jilliene Helman won the LendIt Fintech Woman of the Year award at LendIt's first industry awards show and has led RealtyMogul since 2013 as the firm's founder; offering debt and equity real estate investments as well as a REIT, RealtyMogul is one of the most innovative real estate investing platforms that has evolved from the JOBS Act's new regulations for crowdfunded investments; Helman talks with Forbes about the firm's REIT investment, the experience of its management team, and how economies of scale and the firm's technology are helping the firm succeed. Source
Saving Stream and Lendy have merged and will now combine operations under the Lendy platform; the platform will focus on property development lending and plans to triple its loan issuance in 2017; Paul Riddell, head of marketing and communications at Lendy had the following comments regarding the merger, "Unifying our lender and borrower brands together under one banner – and on a single online platform – is a step that allows us to streamline our process and make our offering simpler for the entire market." Source
Lend Academy shares details about some of the emerging platforms in the real estate market; new platforms have been providing innovative services to help make real estate transactions easier and make homeownership more affordable; companies mentioned are offering lower down payments and some participate in purchasing equity of the home; new platforms are also significantly reducing the expected transaction time for buying and selling a home. Source
StackSource has launched an online lending platform for commercial real estate; the company provides a marketplace for connecting owners and developers with banks and non-bank lenders for credit financing; the multi-lending platform connects borrowers with lenders through the StackSource proprietary lender database; StackSource was developed from the TechStar accelerator program and was founded by Tim Milazzo. Source
Fundrise plans to offer a new fund that invests in the development of homes for sale in Los Angeles, California; investors in the fund will be investing in a diversified portfolio of real estate properties in development and for sale with the option to buy homes in the portfolio; investors will receive distributions from the fund's operating cash flow which will primarily be generated from the sale of homes in the fund; distributions may also be made from other sources of cash flow including structured equity or debt. Source
Online real estate investing marketplace RealtyMogul has announced it will now allow self-directed IRA investment through its MogulREIT I; provides the benefit of passive investment income through a retirement account; MogulREIT I will also now allow for automated dividend reinvestment which can help add to compounding returns for IRA accounts; the product has also announced the inclusion of two new property investments located in San Antonio, Texas and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Source
Landbay will add Positive Lending to its distribution network; Landbay has a comprehensive suite of services for its intermediaries and is also supporting them in advance of the UK's September PRA portfolio landlord changes; Landbay is a UK specialist buy to let mortgage lender authorized by the FCA and involved with the P2PFA as one of its members. Source
Patch of Land has filed a Form D 506c with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it seeks to raise $3.2 million in debt capital with a minimum investment of $250,000; the company has already raised $1.5 million; the company raised a total of $23.6 million in 2015 and has facilitated over $100 million in loans. Source
Marketplace lender, LendingHome, has reached a new milestone; firm has funded over $750 million in mortgage loans since its launch in April 2014; claims to be the largest mortgage marketplace lender; firm attributes the rapid growth to a broader range of investors, now including retail investors, and the secured status of the real estate loans; Matt Humphrey, LendingHome CEO, shares additional thoughts in the included Q&A. Source