GroundfloorReviews of groundfloor.com

Jacked up fees to $85/quarter for their only custodian account provider. Can't close the account because investments 2 years in default are still being "worked out". Avoid at all costs.

I opened a IRA with Groundfloor in 2018ish. only put in a couple thousand, then lost interest as several of the loans defaulted. because of the small balance i just left it open with autoinvest and check it a couple of years it's not doing much, but not hurting me either. Anyway, today i got an email that they've been paying a custodial fee to a third party and they're now going to require us to pay it. 85.00 a quarter. and because they're long term mostly 15 month investments i have to wait until they're repaid to close the account. furthermore they have accounts in default that are still technically open since 2022. so i may potentially never be able to close this account while being charged 85 a quarter for an account that makes less than that annually.

Recently the website and app no longer provide detail info on individual LROs. Half of the LROs I've invested in are now in default and if they repay at all return less than 70% of my investment. Status updates are not refreshed regularly. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

A nightmare is the nicest thing I can use to describe the lack of help and customer service one expects. I'm trying to stop and have been unable to.

I am writing this review after a full audit of my Groundfloor LRO activity from 2021 to 2026. My goal is to provide a factual account of my experience for anyone considering this platform as a "safe" real estate investment. I made a total of 93 LRO investments across various states and credit grades (A–E). At the time of my investment, the platform’s marketing suggested low single-digit default rates and protected principal via sub-80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratios. My actual results have been the opposite: 24% Default Rate: Out of my 93 investments, nearly a quarter went into default. This occurred despite my attempts to diversify across different borrowers and geographic regions. Persistent Unpaid Loans: Five years into this journey, 8 loans remain unpaid with no clear resolution in sight. These were originally marketed as short-term (6–18 month) obligations. Misleading Valuations/LTVs: I recently received a final repayment on a loan that was y3 full years past its due date. Despite being marketed with a 70% LTV against the appraisal, I recovered only 50 cents on the dollar of my principal. For a 70% LTV loan to return a 50% loss, the original appraisal provided to investors appears, in my view, to have been fundamentally disconnected from the property's actual market value. Net Performance: While most loans were eventually repaid, many involved varying losses of principal. When factoring in these losses and the years of frozen liquidity, the risk-adjusted return has been significantly worse than a standard high-yield savings account or a total market index fund. In my experience, the "protection" advertised through appraisals and LTVs did not manifest in the actual recovery process. I am sharing this so other investors can understand the high probability of principal loss and the potential for capital to be locked up for half a decade. Approach with extreme caution. Final comment: They don't get one star because in my early years with Groundfloor, I also invested in 12 of their 1-yr Notes and these were all repaid on time and as advertised. It was the poor investment results from the LROs that made me give up on Groundfloor as an investing option. As an edit based on Groundfloor's response to my post, their comment is misleading. 24% of the totality of LRO's I invested in went into default. Some were eventually paid back at a loss. The percent in default stands today at 100% and it's been 100% in default for quite some time. Yes, I stopped investing in LROs years ago when I realized significant loss was almost certain. Now, I don't really anticipate seeing much if any of the principle returned. Loss of principle is a risk in any investment. That's what I experienced and simply sharing the data about my Groundfloor investing experience. Groundfloor gets paid their slice upfront and it's hard to say what, if anything, motivates them to recover defaulted loans but protecting customer investments does not appear to be a priority. Groundfloor, for me, has just been a stupendously poor investment choice and the chance that I would invest more money in anything this company offers is 0%.

BUYER BEWARE. Don't plan on getting all your money out. Many loans go to default and drag on for years. Only invest money you can afford to lose.

Many loans are in default. May never recoup full investment.

Company is a scam! They finance loans and crowd fund for the probable default! Flat out legally taking the investors money invested! Have lost thousands so far, will be losing much more!