Fundrise

Review: Fundrise ("Real estate investing for *everyone*") advertises and describes themselves in press as a crowdfunding site for real estate development. The home page touts how Fundrise is making real estate investment and its high historic returns accessible for *everyone* (emphasis original) investing $100 on well-screened deals with short term maturity. Personas at the bottom of the page start with "Local Residents," clearly distinguished from "Financial Investors," with a quote describing somebody who could never afford to own property and who is labeled a "Fundrise investor" despite an Investments page that doesnt show any actual investments made. /Investing-with-fundrise makes similar claims about the openness to all and pushes readers to "Open Your Account" after every sentence. /About states directly that "You don't have to wait for the JOBS Act. Fundrise...allow[s] all local residents-not just accredited investors-to invest for as little as $100."A promotional video states that "Fundrise...lets you invest in local real estate and influence the way cities are built...it's not just investment, there's more to it than investment...it allows anybody, with any type of expendable income, to be able to own a part of the area that they live in...you can actually have the power to change your neighborhood, invest in what you care about, and profit from places you go to...this would be the first time that I [a 'fundrise investor'] actually get to walk into a place that I own." In reality, they aren't legally a crowdfunding site, investors are not investing directly in the property listed, only Accredited Investors may participate, & they don't get control or management rights to make decisions about the properties they choose to invest in. More details don't fit into the low Revdex.com character limit.Fundrise needs to be an exemplar of truth in advertising to enable the public & regulators to "start with trust" that such platforms will make honest & accurate representations to their users/customers.Desired Settlement: Revdex.com Advertising review is requested. Fundrise should update their website to make it clear up front and during the registration and sign in process that investment opportunities on its platform are currently available to accredited investors ONLY. It may use qualifiers like in the current regulatory environment and can provide hyperlinks to learn more pointing to e.g. a blog post that explains the reasons why. Fundrise should not be allowed to continue deceiving the public and press.

Consumer

Response:

Since filing the complaint with you, I have not been contacted by Fundrise regarding complaint ID [redacted].However, my request to you was for YOU to do an advertising review of the business, and it appears that you have not developed any business or advertising review of this company's false advertising, so that consumers could "start with trust." Can you please do that?

Regards,