Build Trust and Gain New CRE Investors in the Digital Era

Bill Florent, co-founder and CFO of Selequity

Before the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act allowed you—as a building sponsor—to generally solicit equity investments through online platforms, your investor pool was limited to friends, family, and business partners. That is according to Bill Florent, co-founder and CFO of Selequity, which has more than 35 years of high-quality financial analysis experience in leadership, acquisitions, investor relations, and contract negotiations. “When you approached these individuals with an investment opportunity, you had a built-in layer of trust because of your preexisting relationship,” he says.

However, now that the investing world has migrated online, the opportunity exists for you to seek investments from a much larger pool of investors, he explains in the exclusive commentary below, but he points out that those individuals know nothing about you. “Naturally, in this climate, a deep level of trust is necessary for empowering complete strangers to invest in your properties.”

The views in the guest column below are the author’s own.