Patch of Land in Los Angeles, CA

Communication is really (really really) bad. Numerous promises that they will get back to me regarding the status of non-payment, but nothing. The layout of the site is good, deals are reasonable, but the owners need to find a way to provide better communication.

Since Patch of Land received investor funding - they have been trying hard expand help desk services and automate processes to better support the ramp up in new business. While they are still facing challenges in developing the infrastructure to meet the surge in growth, the senior leadership has been very responsive to issues I have faced (I sent personal email to the Jason Fritton) and he appears very committed to customer satisfaction. Given his personal attention and quick responsiveness to voiced concerns, as well as the changes they have made in the past several weeks (i.e. implementation of my suggestion to send automated email updates to investors regarding specific properties), I am giving them a 4 star review. I will update my review next month based on performance.

Ok - Here's my complete review: I have been an investor with Patch of Land for the last 2 or so years and have "lent" or invested in almost a dozen loans over that time. I conducted diligent research before doing so, checking out most of the other major online real-estate investment companies. What struck me most about Patch of Land vs the others was: 1.) They only do real estate loans ("debt") and as such have become de-facto specialists in that area, which I like. I personally wan't attracted to the equity investments because they are much longer term, typically 3-7 years. Who can trust a 5 year weather forecast? 2.) Their Investments are short term - usually 12 months - which theoretically lowers the risk. My thinking was that less can go wrong in a short period of time than can go wrong over a longer period of time 3.) Unlike stock or equity investments, all their investments are secured by the properties just like a mortgage would be. Now I realize that even this doesn't guarantee 100% success but assuming that their loans are made at a reasonable discount to value (say anywhere from 55-85 % LTV) then I feel better about having this 'cushion' before losses begin to accrue. 4.) I liked the transparency of their website. Patch of Land is the only site where all customers are free to click-into their prior completed deals and see full and complete details. 5.) Interest rates are extremely attractive relative to Banks, other alternative investments and even compared to Lending Club or Prosper (which offer UNsecured loans only) 6.) Their investment offerings are frequent, broad and diverse across many different geographic areas so I can spread my risk across many different properties and different borrowers. Over the last 2 years many of the loans performed as expected and were fully repaid a little early or on time. All interest payments were credited to my account reliably each month and then automatically ACH'd to my bank which I appreciate. Some loans were 'extended' beyond the original maturity date. In these cases I actually received extra "extension" interest and so was pleasantly surprised when the final repayment came in higher than I was expecting. 2 of the loans eventually went into default and actually stopped paying any interest at all for several frustrating & nerve-wracking months. I was worried that I would lose my entire investment on these 2 loans but eventually both were repaid in-full (one after 5 months and the other after approx. 6 months) and i was made whole on my entire initial investment. In addition, i received a much higher default interest-rate while the loans weren't paying as well as some additional late fees and ended up earning an additional ~3.5% on these loans bringing their annualized return to approx 15%. Main issue was that Initially, the level of customer communication was a little too infrequent - especially after those first loans went into default but over the last 6 or 7 months I've found that communications have ramped up significantly to the point where I now feel that I have all the relevant and up-to date info on my investments with Patch of Land. Overall I would say that I am glad that I chose Patch of Land through which to invest in real-estate and I've earned an extremely high rate of return for what i feel is an acceptably low relative degree of risk. I would definitely recommend Patch of Land to anyone looking for high, relatively safe returns or to broaden their investment horizons into real-estate without needing to go out and purchase actual properties.