Swell (Aloha Capital) 2025 Comprehensive
Review and Ranking

What is Swell?

 

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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Swell is a site that specializes in residential and commerical real-estate loans.

Swell claims to have a remarkable $650 million AUM , which is impressive for a newish site. Swell reports having 233 investors and that their offerings average 10% cash-on-cash return (which is notably high).

It also currently has an impressive number of open investments: 10 loans. These range from 12% - 20% and include bridge loans, new construction and fix-and flip. The vast majority of current offerings are single family, and one is office.

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Swell is run by Aloha Capital. And in addition to the single notes on Swell, it has an income fund. Investors looking for increased diversification, might prefer that to the single notes (and single note-risk) on Swell.
 

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What's the latest investor feedback on Swell?

 

Swell 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 Swell investors will be surveyed the next time the site surveys are updated.

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How does Swell work?

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Aloha Capital claims that all underlying loans (and borrowers) are identified, underwritten, originated and serviced by it. So it doesn't purchase loans from other lenders or brokers.

 

Additionally, it says that only the Aloha "Pro" & "Pro Plus" clients are available on the platform.  Swell doesn't appears to disclose on Swell what this actually means.

But according to this other page I found on the Aloha Capital website, these are borrowers that have at least 3+ and 10+ years experience (respectively). Aloha gives them special benefits (including allowing them to get higher leverage loans at 75% - 80% ARV). Some conservative investors may find such percentages to be concerning (and too high for their liking).

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Swell says "Aloha offers 3 types of passive notes through participation agreements: Standard Notes, Protected Notes, and Subordinated Notes". However, it (again) doesn't go on to explain what any of those actually mean. 

 

In my opinion, Swell needs to work on improving their website to present this (and other) important information better.
 

Swell shows each loan with due diligence materials such as the the borrowers schedule of experience, credit & background report, valuation report, and loan documents. 

This is nice but in my opinion this is still missing fundamental information such as the capital stack (so an investor understands what risk they are taking there), exactly how much Aloha is coinvesting and full disclosure of all fees and promotes.

Instead, the Swell website vaguely claims that " Aloha Capital, its affiliates or management also invest into each note on the platform" and "your invested capital is repaid before the borrower earns any profit, aligning their success with yours"

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Additionally, the pitch page does not clearly disclose exactly who owns what, should the borrower default.  Specifically, does the investor own a prorated portion of the underlying real estate ( in which case this is a secured loan and is better protection)?  Or do they not ( in which case this is a riskier unsecured loan)? 

Again, the Swell website only vaguely says "When you invest, you’re investing in the income stream of the loan’s promissory note through a participation agreement". This suggests that it may be the riskier unsecured loan situation ( but is not 100% clear).
 

What are Swell Pros and Cons?

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Swell claims to have a remarkable $650 million AUM , which is impressive for a newish site. Swell reports having 233 investors and that their offerings average 10% cash-on-cash return (which is notably high, if true).

It also currently has an impressive number of open investments: 10 loans. These range from 12% - 20% and include bridge loans, new construction and fix-and flip. The vast majority of current offerings are single family, and one is office. This is a nice variety to choose from.

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​Additionally they accept all investors ...so you don't have to be accredited.

Minimums are high for a non-accredited offering (but still low by accredited standards) at $25,000. And it's nice that they send checks so frequently (monthly instead of the usual quarterly).

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On the other hand, many full cycle deals are showing negative MOIC or negative IRR. I almost wonder if this is a mistake (and asked them about this and am waiting to hear back). If not, then this is potentially a major red-flag,

Swell does not have full real-estate cycle experience with little to no money lost (which some conservative investors require). 

And in my opinion the pitch page is inadequate.  It does not appear to adequately disclose basic information necessary for an investor to understand the risks. This includes the full capital stack, exactly what the 3 types of passive notes are, the exact amount of co-investment Aloha is making, all fees and promotes and exactly what the investor will own (and if it's a secured loan or not).

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Swell Quick Pro & Con Summary

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• Advantages:

  • For a newish site, it has a remarkable (claimed) $650 million AUM and 233 investors.

  • The claimed 10% cash on cash return is notably high (if true).

  • It has an impressive number of open investments: 10 loans ( ranging from 12 to 20%).

  • Nice variety of bridge loans, new construction and fix and flip.

  • Can choose between  single-family and office. 

  • Doesn't require  being accredited. 

  • Fairly low minimums at $25,000. Hey love

  • Nice that it has monthly checks instead of the usual quarterly.
     

• Disadvantages:

  • Many of the full cycle deals are showing negative MOIC or IRR.

  • Doesn't have full real estate cycle experience with little to no money lost (which some conservative investors require).

  • Pitch page is inadequate.

    • Does not appear to adequately disclose basic information necessary for an investor to understand the risks.

    • This includes the full capital stack, exactly what the 3 types of passive notes are, the exact amount of co-investment Aloha is making, all fees and promotes and exactly what the investor will own (and if it's a secured loan or not).
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• Accolades: none

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Is Investing In Swell Legal?

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Arrived is available to all U.S. investors (and does not require them to be accredited). 

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What does a Swell investment look like?

Here is my step-by-step due-diligence on a random Swell 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 in an Bowling Green, Kentucky It's title is: "12% | FLIP | WILSON, NC".
 

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 (real-estate debt in this case), with little to no investor money lost.
 

The parent company of Swell is Aloha Capital. They claim “over a billion of residential real estate financed since 2015”.

If true, this would be impressive volume.

At the same time, their website is a bit unusual/odd-looking versus what the websites of a successful lenders of this size typically look like.

For example, there is no “about us” (at least that I could find) that lists basic information that every investor conducting minimal due diligence would expect to see.  Specifically, the names and complete bios of the founders.  And there is also no complete track record listed.

I dug further and found these Linked In profiles claiming to be the principals:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sapourn-642215118/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hill-kevin/

Bottom line: Swell does not have full real estate cycle experience through a severe downturn (and also does not appear to provide full track record information on their website …which is required to verify if investors have lost little to no money in that time). So this is an immediate dealbreaker for me.

On the other hand, a different investor who is not as concerned with cycle and sponsor risk will be fine with less experience than I am.

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Market Type

 

Wilson North Carolina is a tertiary market (versus being a primary or secondary market). Primary markets (major cities) generally have highly diversified economies. These tend to sustain strong demand in good times and provide maximum protection in a downturn. These are also generally very dense areas. And this can provide some protection against competitors (which can sometimes blow up a pro forma in less dense markets). In addition, some of these also have onerous building restrictions. Again this provides protection against competitors.
 

On the other hand, secondary and tertiary markets have less diversified economies, are usually less dense areas and generally have less onerous building restrictions. And so in general this increases the risk.

As a conservative investor, a tertiary market is an immediate deal-breaker (for me).

At the same time, this increased risk usually also comes with an increased projected return. So a different investor who is not as concerned about cycle and market risk, may prefer markets like this over primary ones.

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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 the Swell site does not show how much skin in the game the sponsor has. In my opinion, this is key information that is not being disclosed (and something they need to change).

Either way: An investor who is interested in this deal will probably want to inquire 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).

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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. 

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In this case there is 72% debt (based on after repair value) and that’s an immediate dealbreaker for me. 

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A different investor who is not as concerned about default risk will prefer to see high levels of debt, because it increases the projected return.
 

Fees and promotes

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One thing I don't like about most nonaccredited investor offerings is that (unlike accredited offerings) they often don't create a pitch deck that concisely discloses all the basic information for an investor to evaluate the risk.

And in this case, I could not find on the pitch page, basic information on fees and promotes (that all accredited offerings disclose on their pitch deck). 

 

For me this is inadequate disclosure (and a major red-flag).

Either way: An investor interested in this deal will want to followup with Swell to get this critical info.

 

For more information on how to evaluate fees/waterfall (including the typical averages on different types of deals), see this guide.

 

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Reputation check

The Private Investor Club is the sister site to the Real-estate Crowdfunding Review (where thousands of investors come together to source new deals, compare due diligence and often get special terms that we couldn’t on our own). 

A PIC club member claims the below experience.  Note that Since this is a 3rd party claim, it's accuracy cannot be verified and the claim is simply being passed on as-is.

“Beware. I invested with Aloha back in the year <redacted>. The fund held a big variety of mortgages. After a few years the yield rolled off to less than 6% so I requested a redemption and, long story short, I am still (in 2025) waiting on $<redacted> thousand dollars from defaulted loans. If I do the math, a 99.5% success rate on 3,125 loans implies 15 defaulted loans and somehow I wound up with 4 of them. Seems statistically unlikely."”
 

Other

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Had the investment all my initial checks, I would have dived in further to check out the sponsor, the properties themselves, 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 Swell 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 Swell 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)