As an aside, I have always chuckled at the word “crowdfunding” as many people think of it as some new business model. Offering investments to a large number of individual investors has been around for a long time. Vanguard and Fidelity come to mind with their mutual funds. True, it's new to real estate and that is why I think there is real opportunity ahead.

GlobeSt.com: What is your strategy for RealtyMogul as president, and can we expect any changes from this new leadership?

Halfacre: My role at RealtyMogul will be additive to all the good we have done and are doing. As a member of the executive team, our collective goals are to lead our team, drive execution and become even greater. I will be particularly focused on the growth in assets under management and maintaining our rigorous real estate investment process. We do that, day in and day out, by taking care of our investors. By underwriting each deal with the highest of standards and being good financial stewards, we are helping countless individuals achieve greater financial stability through real estate investment.

GlobeSt.com: What are your initial goals in your first 12 months with the firm?

Halfacre: That's a good question. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to bring high quality private real estate investments to even a larger number of individual investors. Over the next twelve months you will see us continue to grow and expand our investor presence. You will also undoubtedly hear more about the real estate we are buying and the success of our strategy. In the next 12 months, I am convinced that more and more people will become focused on this growing new industry.

GlobeSt.com: It is interesting that you are moving from a traditional investment platform to a tech-based platform. What is your outlook on this aspect of real estate investing, and where do you think it is headed?

Halfacre: Far too often I have seen real estate companies, “crowdfunding” companies included, that tout their heavy use of technology but in reality, behind the scenes, you realize that all they have is a nice website and a few sales automation tools.

From the first click, through the investor vetting process (we don't take just any investor), to the transfer of money to buy a real estate investment – RealtyMogul has built custom technology to improve the investment process. We also use extensive big-data technology aggregation in our real estate underwriting. It's impressive.

RealtyMogul has nearly 30 dedicated tech employees (out of 80 total employees) working on technology initiatives every day. We think about the use of technology in real estate like many other fintech pioneers – CoStar, Trepp, Axiometrics, RealCapitalAnalytics, etc. It's inevitable that we will see more companies adopt the trend. It's a very exciting time for the industry.