Gatsby Investment 2025 Comprehensive
Review and Ranking

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What is Gatsby Investment ?

To avoid the financial conflicts-of-interests that are rampant on virtually every other review site, I DON'T accept any money from any outside sponsor or platform for ANYTHING (including but not limited to affiliate ads, advertising etc.). See code of ethics for more.

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Gatsby Investment is a site that specializes in multifamily ground-up development, built to rent and renovate to sell (flip). It hyper-focuses on a single area (Los Angeles County) and had good volume. It also has an impressive looking track record for a site that’s new to the Review (48 deals since 2017 and claims no losses). Debt is also refreshingly conservative with low LTVs and long terms that are locked in. On the downside, they currently don't show co-investment, certain debt details and appear to not gives investors a preferred return.

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What's the latest investor feedback on Gatsby Investment ?

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Gatsby Investment is a new-comer to the Real Estate Crowdfunding Review. So it hasn't yet accumulated a large enough number of investors to provide meaningful survey results (which are used to gauge investor satisfaction and produce rating/ratings). Now that it's been reviewed, that will presumably change in the future. And Gatsby Investment investors will be surveyed the next time the site surveys are updated.

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How does Gatsby Investment work?

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Gatsby Investment sources the deals and then displays them on their website. See below for more details.
 

What are Gatsby Investment Pros and Cons?

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Gatsby Investment has several unique features that stand out from other recently reviewed sites. 

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First, they provide their entire track record, which is a refreshing change from the last several reviews. And that record looks substantial, showing 48 properties over 8 years (2017-2025). The claimed return is 23.32% IRR. And impressively, they claim no investor losses...including during the downturn for multifamily (approximately 2021 -2024).
 

Also, conservative investors will appreciate that the debt is often structured much lower than many other sites. The deal I reviewed below was at only 65% LTV (versus 75% and more elsewhere). Additionally, it came with long-term 30 year debt (which mitigates the refinance risk that comes with the more typically seen short-term debt).

Additionally they have good volume for a platform that's new to the site. At the time of the review they had four offerings available.
 

Gatsby hyper-specializes in multifamily with offerings in ground development, built to rent and renovate to sell (i.e. flip). A sponsor that applies this kind of focus over a long period of time can often develop better expertise and processes (versus a sponsor that is all over the place).
 

They are also focused hyper locally with all deals in Los Angeles County. Hyper locally focused sponsors often have specialized knowledge and connections that other sponsors don't have and which can be an advantage.

On the other hand it also means that an investor is probably not want to put their entire portfolio with Gatsby (since it wouldn't have enough diversification). An example is that wildfire risk could damage multiple properties at once.

At the same time, Gatsby claims that currently the destruction from the previous wildfires are providing tailwinds to their current deals.
 

On the negative side, I was very disappointed to see that the site does not currently show skin in the game/coinvestment by Gatsby. Many conservative investors consider adequate skin-in-the-game to be a crucial factor in making an investment decision. Hopefully they will change this in the future.
 

Also, the offering I reviewed didn't specify whether the debt was floating or fixed rate. This is also a crucial factor for many conservative investors and I hope they add this in the future.
 

Finally the pitch page doesn't clearly lay out fees and waterfall, but it appears that there is no preferred return. If so, that makes Gatsby an outlier and uncompetitive versus others.

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Gatsby Investment Quick Pros & Cons Summary

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• Advantages:

  • Good volume for a platform that's new to the review (4 offerings at time of review)

  • Track record shows 48 properties over 8 years (2017-2025) with no losses (23.32% IRR). 

  • Impressively, it also shows no losses during the 2 to 3 years during which there was a multifamily downturn

  • Conservatively structured debt at 65% LTV and long, 30 year terms.

  • Hyper specialized: Multifamily ground-up development, built to rent and renovate to sell (flip)

  • Hyper local: All deals are in Los Angeles. Such sponsors often have specialized knowledge and connections that other sponsors don't have. 
     

• Disadvantages:
   

  • Hyper local: All deals are in Los Angeles. So an investor probably doesn’t want to put their entire portfolio with them (since it wouldn’t be diversified by geography). 

  • Skin in the game (co-investment) not shown.

  • Full debt details (specifically floating or fixed rate debt) not shown.

  • PItch page doesn’t clearly lay out fees and waterfall.  But they appear to give no preferred return (shows only 30% “total service fee” for the sponsor split).
     

• Accolades: none
   

Is Investing In Gatsby Investment Legal?

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Gatsby Investment is only legally available to accredited investors.

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What does an Gatsby Investment investment look like?

Here is my step-by-step due-diligence on a random Gatsby Investment investment. So it may or may not be a typical investment.

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I'm not an attorney, accountant nor your financial advisor. So always consult your own financial professionals before making any financial decisions. This is just my personal opinion and could contain errors, so use at your own risk.
 

Every investor has a different risk tolerance, comes from a different financial situation and has different financial goals. So an investment that looks great to one investor will look terrible to another (and vice versa). And by the same token, there are also many ways to due-diligence (and no one "right" or "wrong" way"). This is my method, and others will do it differently.

Also I'm a very conservative investor, so something that I feel is too risky could be a perfect fit for someone else who is coming from a different place.

This investment is located in East Hollywood, CA and is called “Multi-Family Development #100A: Build-to-Sell | 5-Unit Apartment Building.

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Asset class

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​My first step is to make sure that the asset class and strategy even make sense for my portfolio. (If you don't know how to do this, you can see how I do this in The Conservative Investor's Guide to Due Diligence). 

Let's say it makes sense for my portfolio and jump in.
 

Sponsor Experience

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My next step is checking the sponsor's experience.

A recession can occur at any time and the repercussions can be severe to investments. So I don't want a newbie sponsor learning expensive lessons with my money. And instead, I want them to have gone through a downturn before and done well.

So, I require full real estate cycle experience in the exact strategy (ground-up development in multi-family in this case), with little to no investor money lost.
 

The first thing I looked at was the profile of the principal: Dan Gatsby. And it was a nice refreshing change from the recent reviews of other sites, because there was actually an extensive bio provided.

Additionally the full and complete track record was apparently provided on the website. And this was again a very refreshing change from other recent competitors that I've reviewed.
 

The track record claims an impressive looking 48 properties over 8 years (2017-2025) with no losses (23.32% IRR).

Even more impressively (if accurate)…it also shows no losses during the 2 to 3 years during which there was a multifamily downturn (about 2021-2023 or 2024).

Ideally I typically want to see experience through at least one severe recession (like 2009/Great Recession) because this provides a great stress-test on how truly conservative they are. But this is the next best thing, and I would probably consider this to be acceptable (and a bar that most sponsor fail to hit).

An interested investor will want to dig in more to verify the track record is complete and accurate. But assuming it is, I would personally consider Gatsby’s experience to be looking good. 
 

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Skin-in-the-game

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Another thing I look at, is the amount of co-investment (which is also called "skin in the game"). I generally like to see the sponsor put in at least 5% (and preferably 10%) of their own money into the deal, and on the same terms as investors. This aligns them better and reduces risk. 

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Unfortunately Gatsby Investments does not show how much skin in the game the sponsor has.  I really hope this is not a sign of a sponsor who puts in little to none. 
 

Either way, an investor who is interested in this deal will probably want to inquire deeper with them to find out how much.

For me, anything less than 5% is a dealbreaker.  On the other hand a more aggressive investor will prefer lower skin in the game (as they want to see higher projected returns and that generally requires a sponsor to push the risk envelope).
 

Debt

To minimize the chances of default and losing 100% of the investment, I like to see conservative use of debt at 65% LTV or less. I also like to see a sponsor eliminate refinance risk by locking in long-term debt at 7 to 10 years. And finally I generally want to see them eliminate interest rate risk, by locking in a fixed interest rate.

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The LTV here is 65% and for me that's great to see. On the other hand a more aggressive investor who is not as concerned about default risk will prefer higher amounts of debt, because it allows for higher projected returns.
 

The term of the debt is 30 years which again is something I really like seeing. And a different investor who's not as concerned about refinance risk will prefer a shorter term because it's cheaper.
 

The website didn't specify whether the debt was fixed or floating rate. This is something I hope Gatsby changes going forward. Either way, someone who's interested in this deal will want to dig into and find out if it meets their criteria or not.

For me, floating rate debt is an immediate dealbreaker. On the other hand, a different investor who is not as concerned about interest-rate risk will prefer floating-rate debt because it's cheaper.

Fees and promotes
 

​Gatsby laid out some of the fees based on estimates and dollar amounts. However, I found this format unhelpful in evaluating the deal versus others. Typically, these are listed as a percentage of assets under management (and I typically want to see it between 1 to 2%). 
 

So an investor who is interested in this deal, will want to translate this into the usual % of AUM (and then see if they are okay with the result or not).
 

​Additionally, the waterfall/promote was specified in an unclear manner. But it simply says that there is a 30% “service fee”.  

This appears to be 0% preferred return, and if so is very uncompetitive with other deals that offer a preferred return. Typically I like to see a between 5 to 8%. So I would have to really love a sponsor and deal to give that up.
 

The apparent 70% investor/30% sponsor split, is within the range of the usual 65% to 75% that I like to see go to the investor. And this looks fine to me.

Other
 

If the investment has passed all my initial checks, I would have dived in further to check out the sponsor, the property itself, the projections, etc. To learn how I do those things, check out  The Conservative Investors Guide to Due Diligence (and for debt... The Comprehensive Guide to Hard Money Loan Investing.)

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​​​Where can I discuss Gatsby Investment further?

You can do this with thousands of other investors in the private investor club. While the club is free, membership is restricted to investors who have no business connections to sponsors or platforms. Also, all members must agree to keep all club info confidential by signing a nondisclosure agreement. Click here to join or get more info.

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Who are Gatsby Investment Competitors?

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Here are the reviews and rankings for other similar sites.

• Ark7

• FinResi

• Share SFR

• CrowdStreet

• 1031 Crowdfunding

• Real Crowd

• ArborCrowd

• Carlton Crowdfund

• Share States

• Roofstock

• Roofstock One

• SBRE Funds

• First Real Fund

• Realty Shares

• Equity Multiple

• Realty Mogul

• C.K. Mack

• Lending Home

• Holdfolio

• CityVest

• Prodigy Network

• Instalend

• Cadre

• All other sites (ranked and reviewed)
   

How do I invest in debt?

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Looking to learn more about investing in debt (hard money loan investing)? Here's our 4-part step-by-step series (The Comprehensive Guide to Hard Money Loan Investing).

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• Hard Money Loan Investing Guide: Part 1 - What is it?

• Hard Money Loan Investing Guide: Part 2 - How to protect from loss

• Hard Money Loan Investing Guide: Part 3 - The Due Diligence Check List 

• Hard Money Loan Investing Guide: Part 4 - Top 15 hard money loan funds

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How do I invest in equity and/or debt?

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Looking to learn more about real-estate investing?

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• What are the 4 investment strategies? (Part 1: core and core+)

  • What are the 4 investment strategies? (Part 2: value-added and opportunistic)

• Should I invest in residential or commercial real estate? (Part 1: residential)

  • Should I invest in residential or commercial real estate? (Part 2: commerical)

• What is the difference between equity and debt?

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Related:

How to pick? Check out our step-by-step guide.
 

• The quick guide to picking conservative real-estate deals
   

• Top 25+ accredited investor sites (ranked and reviewed)