Landa Review (2024): Is This Real Estate App Worth It?

If you’ve ever considered investing in real estate but are intimidated by high capital requirements, the competitive nature of the industry, and the time and effort it demands, there’s good news. Real estate investment apps like Landa are transforming the landscape, making it easier to dip your toes into the industry and partake in its profits while outwitting its traditional barriers. Discover what the Landa app is and how it streamlines entry into real estate in this Landa app review.

• What Is Landa?
• What Is Landa Used For?
• How Does Landa Work?
• Features & Benefits
• Pricing & Fees
• Landa Vs. Competitors
• Final Thoughts: Is Landa Worth It?

Landa App Review 2023: What Is Landa?

Landa is a real estate investment app and startup. It simplifies entry into the real estate industry by allowing users to acquire shares of rental properties for as little as $5. Investors earn passive income in the form of monthly dividends.

In essence, Landa Invest enables you to become a part-owner of a rental property with a minimal investment of just $5.

The mobile app facilitates further earning through its secondary market, where real estate investors can trade or purchase shares from other investors, potentially increasing their profits. As we’ll explore later, the Landa app has tools and functionalities to streamline fractional investing. But note it’s exclusively open to U.S. citizens over 18.

So, is Landa a legit app? Landa is a genuine startup co-founded by CEO Yishai Cohen and CTO Amit Assaraf in New York to allow small investors to dip their toes into real estate. The startup initially took flight in 2019 and is subject to regulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2022, Landa made headlines and a significant resurgence after it received $33 million in venture funding from various investors, including Forerunner Ventures and NFX.

Though it had a relatively modest start in 2019, the Landa app has over 25,000 users, and the startup has invested in around 400 properties. Moreover, it has secured approximately $60 million in debt financing to expedite its market expansion. Landa property investments encompass single-family homes and multi-family rental properties in New York City. The startup plans to soon expand into Florida regions such as Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Orlando.

What Is Landa Used For?

Landa serves as a digital platform for investing in rental properties through share purchases. It offers a unique approach to property investment, breaking down each property into up to 100,000 purchasable shares. This system allows you to either accumulate dividends or sell your shares for a potential profit. Key features of Landa include:

• Detailed Property Profiles: Every property featured on Landa is accompanied by comprehensive details such as its address, building type, rent value, and share pricing, aiding in making well-informed investment decisions.
• Property Performance Tracking: The app provides a detailed activity log for each property. This includes rental payment records, management fee history, property tax information, and dividend distribution records, giving investors a transparent view of property performance.
• Customized Property Search: Landa's filtering options enhance your property search experience. You can refine your search based on criteria like location, dividend yields, property types, and more, to find investments that align with your goals.
• Portfolio Management Tools: Upon setting up an account, Landa offers a dedicated portfolio section. This feature allows you to oversee all your investments and monitor your investment journey in one place.
• Mortgage Investment Opportunities: Beyond property shares, Landa also presents options to invest in residential property mortgages, offering dividends influenced by prevailing interest rates.
• Comprehensive Documentation Access: The platform ensures full transparency by providing essential documents for each listed property. This includes lease agreements, property disclosures by brokers, offering circulars, and management services agreements, ensuring you have all the necessary information at your fingertips.

Landa's app is designed to streamline the process of real estate investment, making it accessible and manageable right from your mobile device.

How Does Landa Work?

So, how does the Landa app work? Unlike most real estate investment trusts in their niche, Landa buys and manages its properties. The startup invests and structures them into limited liability companies (LLCs). Depending on whether a property is a single-family or multifamily property, Landa offers 10,000 and 100,000 shares, respectively. Below is a simplified breakdown of Landa’s real estate investing:

• Property sourcing: Landa’s proficient team identifies and invests in rental properties, primarily focusing on their potential returns.
• Leasing: The Landa team finds and secures tenants for the properties. Notably, the app has a dedicated tenant side, allowing tenants to sign lease agreements, make payments, and manage all aspects related to their tenancy.
• Dividend distribution: Landa disburses the rental income as dividends at the start of each month based on the generated rental income
• Landa property management: Local Landa property management teams handle property maintenance, ensuring your investment remains hands-off.

Landa Features & Benefits

As noted earlier in our Landa app review, the app has tools and functionalities designed to ease fractional investing. These include:

• Property Details & Activity: Lets you effortlessly discover basic property details, share, and dividend information 
• Supporting Documents: Provides public access to standard property agreements such as lease agreements and broker disclosure contracts. 
• Liquidity: Users can sell shares at any time after the property becomes actively tradable and as long as there are buyers available
• Portfolio Management: This section lets you easily track and manage your investments
• Lending Service: Earn by investing in residential property mortgages

Read on to discover how each Landa app feature simplifies real estate investing for the average Joe. 

Property Details & Activity

Conducting a thorough property analysis before you acquire shares for any listed property is essential. Landa simplifies this step by offering comprehensive data. Each property listed on the Landa app features all the property, shares, and dividends details you might need to work out metrics like cash flow and cap rate, allowing you to determine whether it’s suitable for your portfolio, such as:

• The property’s buying price
• Monthly rental rate
• Basic property details: the address, square footage, and year of construction
• Property images and videos 

Furthermore, Landa also attaches share and dividend information such as:

• The percentage of shares already sold
• The price per share 
• Dividends disbursed per share 
• Dividends History 
• Startup expenses related to the property, including Landa property management fees, tax, insurance, and loan payments
• Breakdown of cash and financing, such as mortgage expenses 

Supporting Documents

Landa goes the extra mile by providing users access to standard property agreements and contracts. These documents include lease agreements, broker-deal disclosure contracts, property management services agreements, and operating agreements. This open access to essential property contracts helps promote transparency by providing you and other investors with a clear understanding of the terms and conditions governing the property investments you’re part of. It also gives you the knowledge and resources to actively participate in property investment.

Liquidity

At first, Landa’s liquidity seems promising. After investors exhaust all initial share offerings, the property becomes actively tradable on its secondary marketplace. That means you are now free to list your shares for sale on the secondary market, and the cool part is that you get to set the share price. There are no extra charges or early withdrawal penalties since Landa has no minimum holding periods. When you find a buyer, you can complete the transaction and get your money back.

But here’s the catch: just because you get to set the share price doesn’t guarantee buyers will purchase them at that price. Therefore, it’s essential to keep your cost reasonable and within the range of other offerings. Also, while there’s no minimum holding period, your ability to trade your shares depends on the availability of buyers.

Moreover, Landa calls the shorts on when investors can start selling a property’s shares, meaning you might have to wait until they give the green light. So, is Landa liquid? It’s a bit of a “maybe” since it depends on these factors.

Portfolio Management

The Landa app boasts an easy-to-use interface and is available on Google Play and Apple stores, thus accommodating all users. It features a handy portfolio management section. Here, you can easily keep track of all the properties you’ve invested in. You get a clear view of their performance, access essential property information, share details, and dividend history, and even initiate share sales. This feature helps you control your investments and make informed decisions from your mobile device.

Lending Service

Besides property shares, Landa also offers its users investment opportunities in the mortgage of homes all over the US. When you use Lend, you’ll receive monthly dividends based on the mortgage interest rates that are in effect at that time. In other words, Landa’s lending service offers an avenue to earn money by investing in loans that homebuyers countrywide use to finance their purchases.

Landa App Pricing & Fees

The Landa app is one of the most cost-effective investment apps around. It doesn’t impose any upfront or ongoing app management fees. In contrast to the competition, which often charges various fees like sourcing and app management costs, Landa keeps things simple; no membership, withdrawal, deposit, or asset management fees are required either.

However, it’s important to note that Landa does have its way of generating revenue. In addition to the $5 share minimum, they get a portion of the income by applying an 8% management fee, but only when properties have tenants. Additionally, the startup levies a 6% fee for their operational and administrative expenses.

Landa Pros & Cons

Pros

• Low investing minimum: the initial offering is as low as $5
• Rental income is shared every month as dividends
• Landa app investing is completely hands-off for the investor
• No accreditation is required
• The app offers a seamless user experience
• No membership fee or app management costs
• No middlemen, which simplifies the investment process and maximizes returns

Cons

• Limited liquidity: share selling depends on when Landa gives the greenlight, as well as other investors selling
• High property management costs
• No property appreciation data
• Landa investment properties are in individual U.S. states, making investments highly vulnerable to market conditions.
• Share trading is limited to business hours.
• Some Landa real estate investing reviews suggest the app occasionally glitches

Who Should Consider Using Landa?

Landa is a versatile investment platform designed to cater to a diverse range of investors, from novices to seasoned professionals in the real estate market.

• Beginner Investors: Landa is particularly appealing for those new to real estate. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the complexities of real estate investment. The platform's low investment thresholds and comprehensive property management make it an excellent entry point for first-time investors seeking to explore the real estate sector without overwhelming commitment.
• Seasoned Investors: Experienced real estate investors will find Landa's approach to fractional ownership and its secondary market intriguing. It offers a novel method to diversify investment portfolios. The platform allows seasoned investors to expand their investment strategies into fractional ownership, providing a more passive and diversified income stream compared to traditional real estate investments.

Landa is designed to be an inclusive platform, offering opportunities for both beginners looking to understand real estate investment and experienced investors seeking to add a passive, diversified component to their portfolios.

Landa vs. Fundrise

Our Landa real estate review wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t compare it to the competition. That said, Fundrise is a real estate investing app open to both accredited and non-accredited investors. Just Like Landa, the Fundrise app is available in the iOS and Android app stores. 

While both investment apps allow you to cash out at your convenience, it’s worth noting that Fundrise imposes a slightly higher minimum investment of $10, in contrast to Landa’s $5 minimum. Another difference is the frequency of dividend payouts; Landa offers monthly distributions, whereas Fundrise investors get their dividends quarterly, and these aren’t always guaranteed.

In terms of fees, Fundrise charges a 0.15% annual advisory fee, an additional 0.85% real estate fund management fee, and other varying management costs tied to its various offerings. Do note, however, that the Fundrise investment portfolio is more diversified compared to Landa.

Unlike Landa, which solely invests in rental property shares, Fundrise offers investors the opportunity to earn from its real estate projects spread out through 50 states, IPOs, IRAs, and venture funds. Fundrise offers multiple account options, including a hands-off automated investing account for added convenience.

Landa vs. Arrived Homes

Arrived Homes, founded in 2019 by Ryan Frazier, is an investment app offering fractional investments in residential real estate properties, a concept similar to what Landa provides. Arrived Homes shares several commonalities with Landa. 

Notably, both platforms offer a fully passive investment experience by managing property operations and administrative tasks on behalf of investors. However, Arrived Homes distinguishes itself by including vacation rentals and newly built homes in its investment portfolio, whereas Landa primarily focuses on single-family and multi-family rentals.

When it comes to fees, Arrived Homes requires investors to commit at least $100 in share minimums, while Landa only requires $5. The former has a 1% annual asset management fee and a one-time property sourcing fee, while Landa doesn’t charge any of these. However, the Landa real estate app does have a relatively higher property management fee.

In terms of liquidity, while Arrived Homes holds investments for five to seven years, investors can sell their shares every quarter, provided they’ve held the investment for at least six months. However, there may be fees and early withdrawal penalties, which are only disclosed at the time of liquidation. Additionally, Arrived Homes disburses dividends quarterly while Landa distributes them monthly.

Final Thoughts: Is Landa Worth It?

Landa app is an innovative real estate investment app that, compared to other REITs and crowdfunding platforms in its niche, allows users to become fractional property owners at a pretty low cost: as little as $5. Additionally, the Landa real estate investment platform distributes dividend payments monthly, while most of its competitors only disburse income every quarter. 

The app’s user-friendly interface and portfolio management section make it easy to track and manage investments, while its transparent investment strategy enables investors to perform their due diligence effectively. Landa also offers more flexibility in terms of liquidity compared to other fractional investment apps. However, note the startup charges a pretty high property management fee, and one’s ability to trade shares depends on when the startup gives the green light, as well as the availability of buyers. 

So, is Landa worth it? Based on our Landa review, while the app does have its share of cons, it greatly simplifies entry into the real estate market and is worth giving a shot.

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*Disclosure: Real Estate Skills is not responsible for the information provided by Landa or on its respective website. Landa is an independent company which provides real estate services to investors. Real Estate Skills trains on using Landa and the benefits of using the service but is not responsible for the content it provides.