just spent way too much time researching real estate investing apps because apparently that's a thing now and it actually seems pretty legit? like you can start with just $10 on some of these platforms which is wild. been looking at a few options and thought i'd share what i found.

so there's Happy Nest which has zero fees and lets you auto-invest spare change from your purchases, kind of like that Acorns app everyone was hyped about. they put money into rental properties leased to big companies, recently added industrial stuff too. pretty low barrier to entry.

then DiversyFund is similar but focuses only on apartment buildings. minimum is $500 though. they claim their multifamily properties historically beat the S&P 500 which sounds too good to be true but they have like 300k members so maybe there's something there.

Groundfloor is interesting because it's more like a hybrid savings and investment thing. you pick individual renovation projects or let it auto-invest. apparently people get returns around 10% annually and it only costs $10 to start. sounds almost too good but they've been around.

if you're actually experienced at investing, CrowdStreet lets you pick specific commercial real estate deals and become a direct owner. but you need $25k minimum and have to be accredited. they've done like 661 deals and raised almost $4 billion as of a couple years ago.

the whole real estate investing app space is definitely worth checking out if you want portfolio diversification without actually dealing with tenants yourself. obviously do your own research but the barrier to entry on some of these is basically nothing at this point.