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Lennar Marketplace 2025 Comprehensive
Review and Ranking

Tier:

Awards:

New To The Review (rating pending first full survey...see below)

None

What is Lennar Investor Marketplace ?


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.

Lennar Investor Marketplace is a site that allows an investor to purchase brand-new single-family homes to rent out (i.e. build-to-rent). 

 

This allows an investor to avoid the unwelcome surprises of unforeseen capital expenditures (which tend to plague rentals that come from older inventory).

The marketplace is also run by Lennar: One of the largest and well known homebuilders in the country (established in 1954 and has built over 1 million homes). And the platform reflects this...and feels much more reassuring than buying from a relatively new platform or seller.

When I did a search in my area, I was pleasantly surprised to find a huge # of choices (over 20).  That large inventory is also a reflection of the size of the company and is impressive
 

Rental comp data can be difficult for an individual investor to obtain on their own.  So the way the marketplace provides this quickly and easily for all homes is invaluable.

Also the pro forma tool is very detailed and also allows the investor to customize it to their own unique style.
 

Unlike some crowdfunding sites where the investor is pooling their money with others, the investor makes a solo purchase on Lennar Investor Marketplace.  And this has pros and cons.

On one hand, the investor has complete control over how everything is done.  And for example, conservative investors like myself can dial down the debt (or even eliminate it). That can be difficult or impossible to do when pooling money with others (where the lowest common denominator rules).

On the other hand, each property is hundreds of thousands of dollars (with my own area in Tampa ranging from $240k-$787k).  So this will limit the number of properties that most investors can think about buying. And dollar for dollar, an investor can’t diversify as well as a shared investment.

Also, at this time, construction prices have soared so high that yield portion of returns are often very thin (or even negative). This will be unattractive to many investors…especially those who are used to seeing higher yields from buying an older property and rehabbing it. 

The total return IRR’s include both income yield and price appreciation.  And many of these still look attractive (17%+). But when I looked at these in my own area, I personally found the price appreciation assumptions to be unrealistic.

Below I'll do a deep due-diligence dive into a Lennar Investor Marketplace investment, and discuss the above in more detail.

What's the latest investor feedback on Lennar Investor Marketplace?

Lennar Investor Marketplace 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 Lennar Investor Marketplace investors will be surveyed the next time the site surveys are updated.

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How does Lennar Investor Marketplace work?

​The investor browses listings on the website (organized by city and community). When they find one they like, they reserve it and pay the down payment and closing costs to seal the deal.

Lennar also currently offers debt financing (or the investor can go to their own preferred source). And Lennar also offers property management partners (or the investor can do this independently).

 

Lennar Investor Marketplace Quick Pros & Cons Summary

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  • Pros:

    • Avoids the major hassles and risk of unexpected capital expenditures (which typically occurs when buying older houses).

    • Lennar is one of the largest and well-known homebuilders in the nation.

    • Impressively large amount of inventory available.

    •  Provides helpful data on things like rental comps and detailed proforma that can be customized.

    • The houses are purchased solo by the investor, so this gives them complete control over the structure and strategy. 
       

  • Cons:

    • Most investors will not be able to afford a large number of properties on their own so this reduces diversification..

    • Income yields are thin due to the skyrocketing cost of construction these days.

    • Total returns still look attractive but may be relying on unrealistic price assumptions.

  • Accolades: none
     

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Deep-dive due-diligence review: What does a Lennar Investor Marketplace investment look like? 
 

Here is my step-by-step deep-dive due-diligence on a random Lennar Investor Marketplace investment. So it may or may not be a typical investment.

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 near me in Lutz Florida in a very safe, upper-middle-class master-planned community called Connerton. And it’s called “11378 Flourish Drive, Land O Lakes, FL, 34637”

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Asset class

​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.
 

The house

This is a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house.  Every investor will have a different opinion on what the best configuration is. I personally feel the sweet spot for maximizing  the pool of available renters is a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house.  So this is a deal breaker for me  (but is likely to match someone else’s criteria).
 

Based on the images, the home is both beautiful and well-designed.  And this is a welcome change from buying an older home (where often existing owners have done some strange and unhelpful things to the layout).
 

The HOA fee is $1206 per year.   This is on the expensive side and generally I’m not a fan of expensive HOA neighborhoods for rentals. But I also know there are many investors who would disagree.

There is a large special assessment of $3461. If I were interested in this house I would find out exactly what that’s for and the likelihood of it reoccurring ( I.e. is the HOA having financial problems? Etc.)

 

Debt


What’s nice about the marketplaces is that it makes some assumptions about the debt and lets the investor customize it to their own unique style.

In my case: to remove the chances of default and losing 100% of the investment, I like to put no debt on my rentals.  But this is unusually conservative and most investors will put some debt on their property.  


If I were to put debt on a property, I would keep it on the conservative side at 65% LTV or less. The default proforma is at 75% LTV (and would be too high for me).  But what’s nice about this marketplace is that you can customize it to whatever you want. A different investor who is not as concerned about default risk will prefer higher debt because it results in higher projected returns.

I also like to eliminate refinance risk by locking in long-term debt at 7 to 10 years. And finally I generally want to eliminate interest rate risk, by locking in a fixed interest rate.
 

The debt on this property pro forma is a floating-rate ARM ( so again something I don’t personally like).  But the site allows me to change it. And a different investor who is not concerned about interest-rate risk or refinance risk will prefer these things because they are cheaper and can increase the projected return.

Cash on cash and IRR

 

Even with the more aggressive structuring in the default pro forma, the cash on cash for this home is still horribly negative: at -7.6%.  This is a bitter pill to swallow…and not really a reflection of Lennar but on the construction market in general.

The cost of building new has skyrocketed so much, that it often wreaks havoc with the economics of renting.  And especially if the investors focused on income (which is more predictable) rather than price appreciation ( which is less predictable).
 

The total IRR on this looks more attractive at 17.2%.  And this is based on a 8.9% per year price appreciation (based on the five year historical average in this area).

But the past five years were highly unusual in all of Florida. We had a surge of out-of-state buyers during Covid who were looking to escape restrictions in other states and that caused housing prices to skyrocket.  More recently they have come down to earth and many areas of Tampa are experiencing slightly negative price appreciation.
 

So I personally am not expecting an 8.9% repeat ( and find this to be unrealistic).

So that makes this house an easy “no” for me.  On the other hand a different investor with different expectations of the market, will come to a very different conclusion than I did.

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 Lennar Investor Marketplace 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.

Who are Lennar Investor Marketplace Competitors?

Here are the reviews and rankings for other similar sites.

 

  • All other sites (ranked and reviewed)
     

How do I invest in debt?

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).

How do I invest in equity and/or debt?

Looking to learn more about real-estate investing?

Related:


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

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  • Code of Ethics: To maintain objectivity, I do NOT 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.
     

  • Personal opinion only: All info is my personal opinion only as an investor. I am not an attorney, nor an accountant, nor your financial advisor. Always do your own due diligence and consult with your own licensed professionals before making any investment decision. Information is believed to be correct but may have errors, so use at your own risk. If you find an error, please let me know.
     

  • Ratings are general: In my opinion, every investor comes from a different risk tolerance and financial situation, so there's no such thing as a single investment or platform that's great for everyone. There are many deals that aggressive investors love, which I won't touch, and vice versa. And every investor has their own way of doing due diligence. I believe there's no one right way to do it. 

    So, the site ratings are based on criteria which I feel are important to the broadest range of investors (transparency, volume, bankruptcy protection, etc). And even though I have my own personal, conservative, due diligence method (and talk about how the site's deals measure up in the "deep dive section"), I don't use my personal criteria as a factor in the ratings. So for example, a high ranking/rating doesn't mean that I would personally invest in a site (and vice versa). Click here to see what's in my own portfolio.

About Ian Ippolito
Ian Ippolito: investor and serial entrepreneur

Ian Ippolito is an investor and serial entrepreneur. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, TIME, Fast Company, TechCrunch, CBS News, FOX News, USA Today, Bloomberg News, Realtor.com, CoStar News, Curbed and more.

 

Ian was impressed by the potential of real estate crowdfunding, but frustrated by the lack of quality site reviews and investment analysis. He created The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review to fill that gap.

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This site has been ranked and reviewed as part of our in-depth, 100+ site industry review. All data is believed to be correct, but may have mistakes. Please contact us if you notice one. All non-data (including rankings, investor comment summaries, etc.) are my opinion only. I'm just an investor and not an attorney, accountant, or certified financial advisor. To maintain neutrality: I do not own a portion of any of the companies reviewed. 

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