GroundfloorReviews of groundfloor.com

Update 8/23/25: Groundfloor - thank you for responding to my review - almost 8 months later. You asked how I reach the conclusion that Groundfloor loans are high risk, while I thought it obvious based on my initial review, I'm happy to clarify: Of my Groundfloor loans that are closed/completed: Only 1/3 of loans performed as advertised. 2/3 of closed loans either were extended with significantly lower return, or defaulted with losses. To put it in perspective- of the total closed loans, expected/advertised interest was 10.8%, but the actual return is 6.6% (note this is lower than when I did the initial review as a result of more losses coming in). Of the remaining open loans, worth 23% of the total funds I transferred to and invested with groundfloor, 100% (that is ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT) are in default, they are between 1 to 5+ years past expected/advertised maturity date. And when they finally are closed out, most are closed out with losses (= negative earnings). Finally I have no control over this process, 5 years past maturity and Im still waiting for loans to be closed out. All in all, this equals high risk in my book. Hence why I referred to Groundfloor loans as High Risk. Below is my initial review. If you want to invest in groundfloor the following may be helpful for you to know and be aware of: 1. Arm yourself with lots of patience, your money will not be returned to you when originally expected. A large percentage of loans are delayed or enter default, and YEARS after original maturity date - many loans are still not settled/paid out (if they are paid out at all). 2. Understand that - despite being backed by real estate - these are high risk investments, any loan promising 10%+, carries high risk of default. 3. Expect that the total return will be far less than expected. This is due to the many loans entering delays and defaults. Out of my 1340 loans which have been repaid/settled to date, the expected rate of return was 10.8%, BUT actual rate is 7.4%. This does not reflect the 166 loans still outstanding, which are almost all in default and years past maturity date. When all loans are settled/repaid - years from now, i expect the actual rate to be significantly less than the 7.4%. I figure I will be lucky to breakeven. And that does not reflect inflation or opportunity costs. 4. My personal time horizon: I began investing in groundfloor in 2019, I used the automated investment features. In 2023 I stopped reinvesting and began pulling my money out as it became available. I expect it will be years before last 166 loans are settled. The longest loan in default so far is about 5 years past expected maturity date. 5. All in all, Groundfloor is not for me. It sounded good, I originally thought my principal would be relatively safe as it was backed by real-estate, but despite the rather small loans sizes and diversification- that is not the case. The current realized returns (and I don't even know the impact of all the remaining defaulted loans yet) are not worth the hassle, the inflation hits, the lost opportunity costs, the years of delay, or lack of control over my funds. I find I am making better diversified investments with MUCH better and safer total returns, within my regular brokerage account. Groundfloor was an experiment, one I will not repeat.

I have been an investor on this platform since 2019. The experience and customer service was great in the first couple of years but it has gone downhill since then. All of my LRO investments have been in default status for months, and some for years. Now it appears they are holding investor funds even on investments that have been completed. The property backing this particular investment (construction equity deal) was sold over a month ago and yet they still have not disbursed the funds back to the investors. Expectation: "You will receive a one-time payment of your earnings directly into your Groundfloor account upon liquidation of the asset" Reality: It has been over a month since the property was sold and still no return of principal or earnings. Expectation: "Monthly emails will be sent to update investors on relevant metrics related to your investment, similar to our investor updates." Reality: Not a single update was sent to investors during the entire 14-month duration of the project, which by the way was twice as long as they originally projected, which cuts the projected IRR in half. I would not be posting this review if Groundfloor would just communicate with the investors on what is going on. I am hopeful this can get resolved soon.

Your customer service reps are friendly but any level above that is non responsive. My mistake to have invested $1000 on one project. It was initially supposed to be a 4 month payout but It’s been 11 months and property was almost in foreclosure once and now possibly again. Other than that information from the CSR, no one from Groundfloor will provide any further details. In addition, there is limited communication on the website. One CSR suggested I spread out my risk going forward. This is also what I suggest to anyone planning to invest with this type of platform.

The problem with the Groundfloor experience is twofold.. 1. Groundfloor hardly loses, hence there is no shared risk and secondly, the ratings on the loans are opaque. What is a B rating?. What are all the factors?. All my loans in default, all of them were rated B (less risky) while most of my loans that repaid were rated C or D. How is that possible?. Also as a few people have noted, too many loans in default, almost no effort to foreclose, too many loans that defaulted were by investors with no skin in game yet were rated a B. Too many loans extended. Even for a person who can tolerate risk, the reward is not sufficient for risk involved. I wouldn’t recommend this platform until they make fundamental changes on how they rate loans and are more aggressive with their borrowers.

The rates never pay out what they say. My 8.5% return did not give me an actual 8.5% but rather 5.5%. However, my negative 9.1% actually took 9.2% of my investment. Shady math and both these properties paid as far as I can tell and were given lengthy extension. I wouldn't mind the extensions if I were actually making what they claim I would. I'm also still trying to figure out my loss as there is very little up front info or easily found info on your investments so in the end I have no idea what went down with this.

I posted a "2 Star" review in June '22 and had hoped that by this time the platform would have evolved into something more predictable and informative. It hasn't. After 18 months of investing, the same issues still persist without any signs of improvement. Most notably, loan maturity dates continue to be meaningless. They indicate nothing other than the point in time in which the loans will transition from "Perform" to "Extended" status.....which they almost always do. Once extended, the loans drift away into the ether. Information on status and/or when/how they will be closed is practically non-existent. At best, cryptic one-line quips are provided keeping you submerged in the gray zone. You essentially know nothing on the future of your loans as the weeks, then months pass by. My stats: - 86.1% of loans extended - On average, loans that eventually closed were extended 107 days beyond their maturity date - On average, loans that are still open are 240 days beyond maturity date, and counting - 13.9% of loans went into default, but half these were eventually paid I badly want the GF platform to work and become a significant part of my investment portfolio. The concept is great, but the execution is severely lacking and arguably stressful. My advice would be to use it like you would a slot machine in Vegas. Throw in a little money and try to have fun, but for sure don't invest an amount that would have a significant impact if lost or if tied up for months on end.

This was a fantastic company in the start of it. Then they became shady. I needed to modify my account information and now they have my money they refuse the bank I've been using since I opened My account and give me no access to my funds. They are essentially forcing me to continue to invest or do nothing. They told Me My bank was no longer acceptable that they do better with more well known banks. They refused to send me a check or close my account. They are robbing me of 400 dollars.

My first two investments went well. They were very timely in repayment. The last two investments I made are both in a "workout" situation. I think that this is going to take months to years to resolve. In the meantime, my capital is tied up. I believe that I would have been better off investing in REITs that pay a monthly or quarterly dividend. And REITs can be bought or sold at any time on a brokerage exchange.