Barriers to Traditional Real Estate Investment

While massive in scale, several constraints have historically limited broad-based participation in direct real estate ownership or investment:

Large Minimum Investment High property purchase prices require sizable down payments, creating funding challenges. Saved capital typically takes years to accumulate in amounts exceeding $50K+ for a reasonable starter home or multifamily asset purchase.

Financing Complexities & Requirements Beyond raw capital, mortgage applications demand strong credit, steady verifiable income, and existing asset holdings to qualify borrowers. Low income or first-time investors often cannot secure property loans.

Legal & Ownership Burdens Investors must personally handle property registrations, titles, deeds, contracts, tax filings, and other administrative workflows adding hassle. Few have expertise in navigating the bureaucracy.

Property Operations & Management Serving as a direct landlord administering maintenance issues, tenant screening and acquisition, rent collections etc. consumes substantial time for hands-on owners. Passive ownership remains elusive.

Lack of Liquidity Selling real estate can encounter delays from listing durations to closing periods, limiting flexibility. And fractional sales of percentage ownership stakes have not readily existed in private real estate deals, further hampering liquidity for investors.

Geographic Constraints Individuals rarely have direct access to prime real estate markets globally given the high costs of cross border acquisitions and added layers of jurisdictional complexity.