I like to diversify my real estate investments on as many good platforms as possible, and there are two platforms I really like in this field (and that represents a large part of my portfolio): Reinvest24, and EstateGuru. I am often asked which platform to choose between those two, which is really why I wanted to write this article where I compare both platforms.

Let's first talk about the two platforms themselves. Both platforms are real estate crowdfunding platforms - meaning they allow investors to invest in real estate projects, without all the hassle usually associated with real estate. For example, you can invest from very low amounts (from 50 Euros), and all the real estate investments are completely managed by the platforms.

EstateGuru is slightly older than Reinvest24, having been founded in 2014, and in 2018 for Reinvest24.

In terms of investors, at the time this article was written EstateGuru has over 117,500 investors, whereas Reinvest24 only had 14,000, making EstateGuru a much larger platform.

Their business models is where the platforms are really different. EstateGuru is a platform that is financing projects from 3rd parties borrowers - meaning people that want to build real estate projects and obtain financing through EstateGuru, like they would do at a bank.

Reinvest24 is different in the sense they are managing their own projects - meaning more control in their operations.

Let's now talk about what type of projects you can find on both platforms. Here again, both platforms are really different. On EstateGuru, you will mostly find development projects and loans - meaning you invest in projects with a fixed end date, and you will get interests repayments regularly until the project is fully repaid.

Whereas Reinvest24 also offers that, they mostly focus on rental projects, where you actually become a 'virtual landlord', with most of the advantages you get when owning your own real estate, like monthly rental payments. This is a model that I really like, as it allows you to get monthly payments and really build your real estate empire like you would with classical real estate.

In terms of geographical diversification, both platforms are fairly diversified in Europe - with countries like Estonia, Latvia, Spain, or Germany. EstateGuru as a slight advantage here, with 8 countries of operation compared to 5 for Reinvest24. However, Reinvest24 provides the access to Moldovan real estate, the market which is developing very rapidly and has an enormous potential in terms of price growth.

Both platforms also have low minimum investments per project - 50 Euros for EstateGuru, and 100 Euros for Reinvest24.

What I like about Reinvest24 as well is that they also offer short-term projects (less than a year), whereas that's not possible on EstateGuru.

Before speaking about potential returns on both platforms, it is important to consider how different projects are on the platforms. On EstateGuru, the average annual returns for investors is at 9.84%, which is coming from development projects & loans repayments.

On Reinvest24, the average returns are higher at 14.9%, which is right now the highest interest rate You can get among all the European real estate investing platforms. For real estate backed loans and development projects, this yield is fixed, but when it comes to rental projects, this is the combined returns between rental distributions (around 7%) and the profits made from the sale of the rental properties at the end of the projects. In this case, the capital growth can be even higher, as it is not capped. 

In terms of fees, EstateGuru applies a fee between 0 and 1% on interests repayments, and there is a 2% feed for both sellers & buyers on their secondary market. Reinvest24 is better in this domain as well, with only a success fee per project of 1%, and a 1% fee for buyers on their secondary market (no fee for buyers).

In terms of collaterals attached to the projects, both platforms are really similar: they offer first rank mortgages & personal guarantees from the borrowers. Reinvest24 goes a bit further by creating dedicated SPVs (Single Purpose Vehicles), to really isolate each project from each other to further risks.

I also like to look at the historical performances of the platforms I am investing on in terms of projects default rates. Here Reinvest24 is a clear winner, with a 0% default rate, whereas it is currently at 6.6% for EstateGuru.

Finally, in terms of regulation, EstateGuru has the advantage at the time this article was written: they are fully regulated in Lithuania, whereas Reinvest24 is in the process of receiving their license in Estonia.

Note that at the moment only EstateGuru has an auto-invest function, which is great to completely automate your investments on the platform.

Reinvest24 on the other hand has a really cool features: livestream cameras, that allow investors to monitor each project from their account. They also have a great section on each project in which you can follow all the latest updates about the projects.

Let's now sum up on this comparison between Reinvest24 and EstateGuru. We saw that those two platforms are really different, offering two completely different experiences for investors. On one side you have EstateGuru, with fixed-interest development projects and an auto-invest function, that allows you to completely automate your investment on the platform like you would do on a Peer-to-Peer lending platform for example.

On the other side you have Reinvest24, a platform where you can invest in rental projects across Europe, and become a virtual landlord without any of the hassle that usually comes with that, while enjoying great returns.

So is one better than the other? It all depends on what you are looking for. Personally, as I love the idea of building my real estate empire made of rental units, that pays me distributions every month. Therefore, I have a slight preference for Reinvest24. 

What I really recommend though is to invest on both platforms. They both have low minimum investments, meaning even with a low investment budget it's easy to invest on both at the moment. You will end up with a highly diversified portfolio with different projects types and different countries, resulting in a much stronger investment portfolio overall.