Origin Investments Review 2020

Invest in well-diversified property funds on the Origin Investments platform.

Origin Investments review
Overall
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Introduction

Origin Investments was founded back in 2007 as a real estate investment company that is the owner and operator of many commercial properties across the United States, with its main focus being on the fastest-growing markets in the nation.

The headquarters is in Chicago and it has other offices across the United States. The Origin Investments platform allows investors to get access to a number of different diversified property funds. You can view the properties individually that make up these funds, but this is not a site for purchasing an individual property. You will be buying a mix of a range of different properties.

This Origin Investments looks at the different parts of this offering a lot of detail, allowing you to gain an insight into whether or not this might be a good fit for your investment needs.

Overall Rating

Commissions & Fees
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Service
4.5
Diversification
4.5
Investment performance
4
Products
4.5

Pros

  • Transparency

    Unlike private REITs, you can quickly see every single property that makes up one of the Origin Investments funds.

  • Cares about its investors

    Origin Investments Origin Investments team, to help walk you through the entire investment process.

  • Money back guarantee

    There is a one-year satisfaction guarantee on the Origin Investments platform if you are not happy with the service, allowing you to get a refund of as much as $250,000.

  • Well-diversified funds

    As Origin Investments has a presence across the United States, it has been able to create funds that are well-diversified across different regions.

Cons

  • Accredited investors only

    You have to be an accredited investor in order to invest in Origin Investments funds.

  • Significant fees

    The fees associated with investing on the Origin Investments platform are a good bit higher than a lot of its competitors.

When you partner with Origin, you won’t find any hidden fees, confusing structures or complex deals. Our returns are created through real value creation and not financial engineering.

Where Origin Investments Stands Above Competition

You have a great range of well-diversified property portfolios to invest in, with the process being completely transparent from start to finish. Origin Investments also places a big emphasis on keeping investors happy.

Where Origin Investments Falls Short

The fees are a bit higher at Origin Investments than a lot of other similar platforms and it is only open to accredited investors.

Fees & Features

If you are investing through Origin Investments, there is an annual management fee in place of 1.25% of your net asset value. There is also an administration fee of sums of less than $250,000 that you have invested of 2%. For funds invested of more than $250,000 then the fee will drop. There is also an acquisition fee in place of 0.5% and if you get a 6% preferred return, there will be a 10% performance fee levied.

 
Minimum Investment
Account Fees
Accredited Investor
Private REIT
Offering Types
Property Types
Self-Directed IRA
Regions Served
 
Origin Investments
$100 000
1.5%
Equity, Preferred Equity
Office, Multi-family
Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston and Raleigh
RealtyMogul
$1,000
0.3%-0.5% annually
REITs, Individual Properties, 1031 Exchanges
N/A
United States
PeerStreet
$1,000
0.25%-1%
Real Estate Loans
Residential, Corporate
United States
Rich Uncles
$5
No broker/dealer fees. 3% funds fee
REITs
Student housing, offices, retail and industrial
United States
Fundrise
$500
0.85% annual asset management fee
eREITs, eFunds
Commercial and residential
United States
LendingHome
$5,000
1.15%-2.6% on monthly interest
Bridge Loans, Platform Notes
Residential and Commercial
United States

How Does Origin Investments Work?

The process of using the Origin Investments site as an investor is very easy. You can eliminate a lot of the paperwork and timely tasks that are usually associated with real estate investing. You do have to be an accredited investor in order to invest with Origin Investments. However, if you are not accredited, you are still able to sign up for an account and browse through the investment opportunities.

Once you have created an account, there are in-depth research features that you can use to optimize your experience. You can easily compare the different options against one another in a quick and easy manner.

Once you have found a given fund that you want to invest in, you will be paired with a personal contact to talk you through the entire process of making the investment from the beginning up until the finish. This team member will have a lot of experience completing similar deals on Origin Investments.

Portfolio Details

There are a few different Origin Investments funds that you can invest in depending on your needs and risk tolerance. There is an Income Plus fund that aims to give you a stable level of passive income and capital appreciation. The QOZ fund is a diversified portfolio of transformational projects that have been tax-advantaged.

On the site, you can quickly check out the previous fund investments that may be closed at a given time. You can deep dive into these funds as much as you like, seeing what they are made up of and what the strategy going forward may be. There are many other smaller, individualized funds that you can also check out on the site.

Products

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a popular financial product used to invest in property without having to hold a stake in the property itself. Instead, you are buying a piece of a fund that is usually made up of many different properties. The Origin Investments funds are not REITs. With REITs, there are usually a lot of fees attached to them.

This is not the case with Origin Investments as there is not a middleman in place. Instead, you will be dealing with low fees, allowing you to have more funds to invest into deals. For private REITs, there is no way to check out each of the individual properties that make up the fund. In contrast, the Origin Investments funds are transparent, being able to check out each of the properties in the fund at any time you wish.

Deposits & Withdrawals

You do not deposit funds directly to the Origin Investments platform. Instead, there is a third-party administrator in place that handles all of the investment funds. The fund manager will then direct the funds in compliance with the respective operating documents. For the most part, the funds that you are investing or getting returned to you will be processed via standard ACH transfers.

Customer Support

One of the standout aspects of the Origin Investments experience is that they really care about their investors and deal with them very closely on a regular basis. Every single accredited investor that has registered on Origin Investments will be contacted by an actual member of the Origin Investments team inside of 24 hours, once this option has been selected at registration.

You will then be walked through the entire process of investing in deals on Origin Investments by this contact. This allows you to quickly and easily get your money working for you, rather than wasting time trying to figure minuscule tasks out.

If you have an issue, there is a comprehensive FAQ section that will contain a lot of key answers. You can also visit one of the offices that Origin Investments has around the country, as well as ring them by phone, send them an email or communicate with them through one of their social media profiles. There are plenty of options for you to utilize.

Security & Reliability

Origin Investments is committed to ensure that all of its investor’s data is kept safe and secure at all times. The platform uses Amazon Web Services to power the site, an offering that has many great security classifications and features. All data is also encrypted using 2048 SSL encryption technology.

All passwords are also encrypted and you can enact additional security measures to your account if you wish to do so. Across the board, Origin Investments takes its role as a data protector very seriously, in line with its emphasis of going above and beyond for its investors. There is also a satisfaction guarantee in place if you are not happy with any aspect of the service, allowing you to get a refund of up to $250,000.

What Origin Investments Is Best For

  • Accredited investors as this platform is not available for casual investors. There are often high minimum required investment sums.
  • Investors looking for full transparency. Unlike private REITs, you are able to see each individual property that makes up the Origin Investments funds.
  • Investors looking for security. Investing on real estate crowdfunding platforms can be a bit scary if you haven’t done so before. With Origin Investments, there is a satisfaction guarantee for the first year after you sign up for an account. This means that you can get a refund of up to $250,000 if you were not happy with certain parts of the Origin Investments offering.

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InvestorGreg Editorial Team

InvestorGreg Editorial Team

The InvestorGreg Editorial Team is a group of financial writers and analysts who cover the worlds of finance and investment. Read more