Why I Started Fintor — a Platform to Democratize Real Estate Investing
Building the Stock Market for Real Estate Investing
As an Iranian-American immigrant, I moved to the U.S. with my family at the age of 11. Though we were excited to live the American dream, it wasn’t an easy transition. I went through a lot to try to get to where I am today. As an only child, when I moved here I had no friends, did not speak any English, my family did not have any money, and I was bullied every day in school.
Yes, there are a lot of things in our society that have been solved either through technology or non-profits. But, given my perspective, I always thought about the immense wealth gap in our society and how I can change it through technology.
Wealth Gap
When I started my last startup company, we would drive through these neighborhoods in Silicon Valley to get to the Stanford and Facebook campuses. (They were clients for my last startup.)
We would think to ourselves how cheap these properties were 20 years ago, and now they are worth over $10 million dollars. This simple thought started our research, and our understanding of how to spot real estate investments in up-and-coming cities. We wanted to start with a small investment and diversify our portfolio.
But soon we realized that it’s impossible for us to invest in real estate because there are so many restrictions and barriers to entry. There were absolutely no platforms in the market that allowed us to invest in real estate properties without all sort of restrictions.
I knew this had to be a bigger problem, other people must have felt discouraged too.
We decided to speak with our friends and colleagues. Soon we realized that real estate investing is the dream of every Millennial, Gen Z, and the underserved demographics. However, after extensive market research, we came to the conclusion that everyone had the same attitude towards real estate investing.
Real estate investing was inaccessible, and reserved for the rich.
This is a $37 trillion dollar industry in the U.S. — and it’s still not available to the majority of people.
There is absolutely no way of investing in this asset class unless you have thousands of dollars, plenty of time, and some background knowledge.
The American real estate market has consistently been the biggest driving force for prosperity in human history, with returns of about 10 percent annually on average and creating 90 percent of the world's millionaires wealth. That’s great news for some people but doesn’t mean anything for the millions of people — including the 85 percent of U.S. millennials — who are stuck on the sidelines due to economic and psychological barriers to entry.
Real estate is pretty much an exclusive club for the wealthy, whether through personal portfolios, crowdfunding platforms, or real estate investment trusts (REITs).
As an Iranian-American immigrant, I have seen the great opportunities that this country has to offer to become someone and to build wealth over time. But there are still problems. You either need huge amounts of capital or inside connections.
I asked myself every day why don’t we have the opportunity to invest and build wealth through real estate.
Take a look at the chart below, it shows the haves and the have nots. Real estate ownership is less than 35% for individuals under the age of 35. The numbers when it comes to real estate investing is much lower than what the chart indicates below. The wealth created through investing in real estate for Millenials and Gen Z is almost Zero.
In this 21st century, real estate is still an exclusive asset class and only available to a selected few. The rest of us are left out in the cold. If you want to invest in real estate, there are currently two ways to get a foot in the door:
- Traditional: From finding a realtor, to the ridiculously high down payment, and finally taking all of the responsibility of managing a rental property. It’s an absolute headache. You can see below:
- Crowdfunding: It’s interesting how crowdfunding platforms claim that they have opened access to real estate investing. If you take a look at these platforms, they’re just another dashboard for the wealthy. A quick story: My co-founder and I once went on one of these platforms, and before even exploring, they took $1,000 from our account. Not to mention there is absolutely no user experience associated with these platforms. Just take a look below as I compare Fintor to crowdfunding platforms:
All of these outdated ways of investing were created for existing real estate investors. Nothing has ever been focused on Millennials, Gen Z, and the underserved demographics.
Fintor started with a simple idea: use technology to build a new legal infrastructure, allowing us to rethink how real estate investing is done.
This means getting rid of the thousand-dollar minimums and multi-year holding periods. We’re committed to providing you with a convenient, cost-efficient, and enjoyable real estate trading experience.
America was built with the working class. The new generation that helps boost the society up day by day. I have witnessed all this growing up in the U.S. and I know that there is still a lot of room for improvement in our society.
By building Fintor my mission will be to create the next generation of real estate investors using technology and in the process shrinking the wealth gap by opening up access to this $37 trillion dollar industry.
I envision just like how Robinhood is the dashboard for equities, Coinbase is the dashboard for Crypto, Fintor will be the dashboard for real estate investing.
If you’re not yet a member of our community, we invite you to join our waitlist to get early access to our app via Fintor.co. As a bonus, sign up on Fintor.co and when you invite 10 friends you get free shares in a house upon access to our app. Terms and conditions apply.
I always look to stay engaged with my users as much as I can. Drop me a note: farshad@fintor.com
Thanks for reading,
Farshad Yousefi
Co-Founder and CEO
Fintor, Inc.
Fintor is not giving any investment advice.
Disclosures: Fintor.co/terms-of-use
