Arizona’s first real estate crowfunding company, Neighborhood Ventures, recently closed on its third investment property, an eight-unit apartment building in Old Town Scottsdale. Ninety Arizona residents invested a total of $550,000 into the purchase of the property, which will be renovated with a plan to operate it as an AirBnB.

Scottsdale resident Audrey Hollander said, “I have been a real estate investor for much of my life. I renovated several properties and then rented them out and always had good success. But I don’t want to be a landlord anymore so working with Neighborhood Ventures has been perfect fit. I have invested in each of the projects and look forward to seeing the success of the Airbnb project near Old Town.” 

Neighborhood Ventures was launched in September 2017 by Jamison Manwaring, a former tech analyst at Goldman Sachs and VP of Investor Relations at LifeLock, and John Kobierowski, a veteran in the apartment industry and managing parter of ABI Multifamily. The two partnered to create Neighborhood Ventures when new laws were passed that allowed non-accredited investors to become shareholders in Phoenix apartment projects with as little as a $1,000 investment.

Manwaring says the response to the Old Town project far surpassed the first two projects, with this third Neighborhood Ventures project fully funding in just three weeks, compared to six months for the first project and 60 days for the second. 

“At first, people weren’t sure how real estate crowdfunding worked,” said Kobierowski. “They needed to see that our team knows how to buy the right properties in the right location at the right price, do smart renovations, and offer investment opportunities that make sense. Now that we’ve proven the model, the next step is to scale up. We’re looking at multiple properties now and expect to add several new projects by the end of the year.”

The company’s first investment opportunity, a 12-unit apartment project in downtown Tempe, closed in June 2018 and recently completed its renovation. The second project, a 12-unit apartment renovation in Uptown Phoenix, closed in December 2018 and renovations are in progress. 

Additional information is available at neighborhood.ventures and youtube.com/neighborhoodventures