Just one year after celebrating the first anniversary of its first real estate investment trust (REIT), Realty Mogul has unveiled its second REIT offering: MogulREIT II. The trust will invest in multi-family apartment communities that have shown “consistently high occupancy and income levels across market cycles,” according to the company’s press release.
Calling multifamily housing “a great sector for investment,” Realty Mogul CEO and co-founder Jilliene Helman pointed to how consumers – especially millennials – are shifting from buying a home to renting. She highlighted this generation’s preference for lifestyle flexibility, but added “we’re even seeing an emerging demand among baby boomers, who are moving back into city centers from their home in the suburbs.”
“The response to MogulREIT I overwhelmingly reinforced our view that retail investors are looking for a better way to invest in real estate,” Hrach Simonian, General Partner at Realty Mogul investor, Canaan Partners, said. “Multifamily is one of the most requested products by our customers and we have tailored this fund to that category.”
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Realty Mogul demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2013. The company enables accredited, non-accredited, and institutional investors to invest in a variety of real estate properties through its secure, private, online platform. Investors can search and review investment opportunities on the platform, as well as examine due diligence information, and sign legal documents in a secure environment.
Finovate research analyst Julie Muhn profiled Realty Mogul in her look at Real Estate Investing Tech earlier this year, and interviewed CEO Helman in her feature “Why PropTech and MortgageTech Are the Future of Fintech.” Realty Mogul has raised more than $46 million in funding, and includes Sorenson Capital and Canaan Partners among its investors.