Addy Review for 2024: Real Estate Crowdfunding Made Easy

If you’re like most Canadians, you probably have a few hundred dollars saved up in your bank account. And like most of your compatriots, you may be looking for ways to grow that money without taking on too much risk, possibly through real estate investment.

Apps like Addy have surfaced recently, offering real estate crowdfunding. With the tagline “Real estate for everyone,” it is a company that claims to invest in the sector is a breeze.

Addy Overview

Addy is a Canadian real estate investment platform that allows anyone to invest in pre-vetted real estate projects for as little as $1. Projects are listed on the Addy marketplace, and investors can browse and choose which project they would like to invest in.

The members use either the web or mobile app to purchase their “stake” in a unit, crowdfunding such purchases along the way. Addy’s real estate investment opportunities, regularly uploaded to the website, include residential and retail facilities. Each property comes with a detailed explanation, including an estimated term and return on investment.

But not everyone can join Addy. At the time of writing, only the residents of Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario could register and become investors. The service is slowly expanding to other territories, with a plan to offer every Canadian a chance to become an investor.

How Addy Works

The company's website states you’ll need just $1 to start investing. A bold claim, but not far from reality at all. You really don’t need much money to get started with this crowdfunding investment platform.

It’s basically a three-step process:

1. Addy’s acquisitions team finds an investment opportunity. It’s a rigorous process involving several committees.
2. Once the investment is decided upon, it gets divided into equal parts. Each of those parts is priced at just $1.
3. Addy’s users can start investing, buying those pieces of the property until the whole unit has been sold.

As you can see, this is a safer (and cheaper!) way to invest in real estate.

Investment Types

Not every property is the same and neither are the investments. Since you’re not blindly investing through Addy, each property that’s put up for crowdfunding is categorized based on risk level and the profile of the investor typically interested in such a unit.

You’ll find four types of investment opportunities:

1. Core real estate investments: Units generating stable income, with very low risk for investors; usually established businesses with long-term contracts.
2. Core Plus real estate investments: Low to moderate risk units, with potential for steady income growth.
3. Value-Add real estate investments: Units with low or no cash flow at the time of investment; risky investments that require further development, with high turnaround possibilities.
4. Opportunistic real estate investments: Units not expected to generate profit within the next couple of years; intended for the most experienced investors.

Earning Money Through Addy

Investing in a property is just the start. You’re obviously putting down the money with an expectation that your investment will net profits over time.

As we’ve explained in the previous section of our review, the units you’ll be investing in through this platform come with varying risk levels and the time it takes to generate profits.

Generally speaking, there are two ways you’ll be earning money.

The first is through rental income. Since most investment units Addy lists are rental properties, the excess rent that tenants pay is passed onto investors. The money is split proportionately, meaning you’ll be earning more if you invested more. It’s as simple as that. Think of it as dividends, but from physical property.

Another revenue stream comes from selling a property. During the process of liquidation, any proceeds are split among the investors, just like in the previous example.

Whatever the case, the specifics will be detailed in the offering memorandum (OM), so you can plan your investment accordingly.

Pricing and Plans

Addy Invest is a membership-based service, which means you’ll have to pay a certain annual fee to access its features. This includes investing itself. Currently, there are three membership plans/levels that you can subscribe to, each with different investment limits and benefits but all with access to investing in all units that Addy offers: Charter, Believer, and Accredited Member. 

Charter is the basic membership plan and costs $25 a year. It allows you to invest a maximum of $1,500 per property listed and you can get up to $500 in instant funding credit while you wait for the service to process your deposit. You can cancel each of your investments within 60 days and get a full refund with this plan.

The next level of membership is called Believer and increases your per-property investment limit to $3,000. It also adds some perks, like access to a private Believer Discord server where you can engage with other investors. However, this is a long-term commitment, as the pricing for this membership is $500 for five years.

Lastly, the Accredited Member plan costs $500 a year and is only available to investors who can prove they can invest large sums in properties. The minimum investment through this plan is $10,000 per unit, but the upper limit can go above $250,000.

Addy Mobile App

If you prefer investing on the go, and have an iPhone or iPad, you can download the official app to your iOS device. You won’t lose any of the features if you’re investing through the app instead of the website.

At the time of writing, the Addy mobile app was available only for iOS, but fear not Android users – Addy has recently announced it plans to launch an Android version soon. It’ll be on par with the iOS app, including notifications about new investment opportunities and access to all investment guides.

Advantages and Downsides

Like any other online service, Addy comes with a set of pros and cons when compared to other investment tools on the market. Being specifically tied to real estate is definitely an advantage, especially the way the investment model is set up, but there are also other reasons why you should check it out.

Strengths

• It’s one of the fastest and easiest ways to become a real estate investor.
• You only need $1 to get started.
• The fees are nonexistent, you only pay for your investment.
• Typically, investors saw their investments double in value over time.
• The variety of units on offer is really good and everyone will find something they like.

Weaknesses

• The service isn’t widely available across Canada yet, being limited to Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario.
• The frequency of adding new units could be better.
• Subscribing to more expensive plans is the only way to invest higher amounts of money.

Customer Satisfaction

Addy has been helping Canadians invest in real estate for quite some time. Reading through customer reviews, we’ve seen that most of them praise the platforms’ ease of use, along with the very idea of allowing anyone to invest exactly how much they want.

The platform’s transparency is also praised by users, which is what we also liked about it.