Roofstock 2024 Comprehensive Review and Ranking

What is Roofstock?

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To avoid the financial conflicts-of-interests that are rampant on virtually every other review site, I DON'T accept any money from any outside sponsor or platform for ANYTHING (including but not limited to affiliate ads, advertising etc.). See code of ethics  for more.
 

Note: this is a review of the original Roofstock platform. Click here to see the information on the newer Roof Stock One instead.

Roofstock specializes in residential real estate equity. 

 

They may not be what you would typically think of as a crowdfunding site, because you purchase the entire house on your own (rather than sharing the investment with others). However, they do use crowdfunding regulations to make their investments public, and we got substantial feedback from investors on them, so we are including them in the rankings.

Roofstock has a very substantial $70 million in venture capital funding, and boast one of the lowest fees in the industry at .05% (and the first time it is discounted even more to just $99). Also, they have one of the largest volumes of any site (73 open when we looked) which was a substantial increase from the 40 open investments last year.

However, since you own the whole house yourself, this requires a larger minimum investment than most sites. We saw a few older investments with $55,000 minimums. The majority were between $80,000 and $120,000. You can lessen the minimum by taking out a loan on the house, which reduces the minimum to around $20,000 ($15,000 investment in property plus $5000 reserve for repairs etc). This has the additional dual sided effect of increasing your return if things work out, or increasing your risk and potential for loss if they don't.

Roofstock does a good job of giving you a detailed inspection report of each property, so you can have a good idea of what you are getting into. On the other hand, the yields we saw were somewhat mediocre (10-12% gross yield, meaning that none of the hefty expenses were deducted). Based on a 60% expense+ capital expenditure reserve rule of thumb, we might expect a 4-6% return.

In contrast, many of my own rental properties return 7-11% after all fees and expenses. On the other hand, I happen to be in a very solid market, and not all investors have that advantage. In my opinion it's important to weigh the trade-offs and choose what's best for yourself.

 

What's the latest feedback on RoofStock?

August 23, 2023: Roofstock appears to no longer be offering any more exclusive deals. So the existing review is being kept for historical purposes and it is being downgraded to the lowest tier (challenged/exited).
 

2017-10-24 An investor expressed dissatisfaction with a “Roofstock certified" property they purchased, and claimed there was about $5k in missed or un-reported problems (which the investor claimed they had to pay for themselves after the sale). They alleged basic issues were missed such as a mailbox in such poor repair that iwas duct taped to a post to keep it from falling off. They also alleged the inspection did not look at or discover a rotting fence that had to be replaced, an inadequately maintained pool that was expensive to correct and overgrown foliage "all over the property" that was more money to fix etc.On its website, Roofstock claims that all such properties undergo a “A property inspection conducted by an experienced national inspection firm”.

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What are the pros and cons of RoofStock?

 

• Advantages: $13.25M in venture capital funding, extremely low fee of 0.5%  (discounted to $99 for the first investment), and enormous volume (73 open investments when we looked). 
   

• Disadvantages: High minimum investment of $55,000 (or $20,000 if taking on a loan) with many requiring more, you don't share the investment with anyone else, yields are not as high as a knowledgeable investor can obtain if they are local to a solid market.
   

• Accolades: None.

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*Starred sites are tied and are shown in alphabetical order.

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For more raw data on the site (including investor and sponsor fees, legal structure etc.), or to easily compare it with the data of competitors, see the feature by feature comparison matrix.​
 

Where can I discuss other RoofStock deals?

You can do this with thousands of other investors in the private investor club. While the club is free, membership is restricted to investors who have no business connections to sponsors or platforms. Also, all members must agree to keep all club info confidential by signing a nondisclosure agreement. Click here to join or get more info.

 

Who are RoofStock Competitors?

Here are the reviews and rankings for other similar sites.

 

• CrowdStreet

• 1031 Crowdfunding

• Real Crowd

• ArborCrowd

• Carlton Crowdfund

• Share States

• Roofstock

• Roofstock One

• SBRE Funds

• First Real Fund

• Realty Shares

• Equity Multiple

• Realty Mogul

• C.K. Mack

• Lending Home

• Holdfolio

• CityVest

• Prodigy Network

• Instalend

• Cadre

• All other sites (ranked and reviewed)

How to pick?
 

Check out our step-by-step guide.
 

• The quick guide to picking conservative real-estate deals (for accredited investors)
   

Real Estate Tutorials:
 

Looking to learn more about real-estate investing?

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• What are the 4 investment strategies? (Part 1: core and core+)

  • What are the 4 investment strategies? (Part 2: value-added and opportunistic)

• Should I invest in residential or commercial real estate? (Part 1: residential)

  • Should I invest in residential or commercial real estate? (Part 2: commerical)

• What is the difference between equity and debt?