Groundfloor

Groundfloor is a real estate debt crowdfunding platform, founded in 2013 and based in Atlanta, that lets anyone (no accreditation required) lend as little as $10 to short-term fix-and-flip and renovation projects. You buy Limited Recourse Obligations (LROs), notes tied to specific loans, and earn the same interest rate the borrower pays, graded A to G with yields from roughly 5.5% to 25%-plus. Terms run about 6 to 18 months and the account minimum is $100. Groundfloor charges investors no fees on standard LROs; borrowers pay origination and servicing, so the full interest yield flows to you. The exception is the Flywheel Portfolio (launched October 2024), which carries a 0.25% to 1.0% management fee on disbursements. Risk-first, the headline is solvency. Groundfloor's independent auditor included a paragraph on substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern in its reports on both the FY2024 and FY2025 audited financial statements ([FY2024 Form 1-K](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1588504/000110465925029553/tm2510859d1_partii.htm), [FY2025 Form 1-K](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1588504/000110465926038396/tm2610811d1_partii.htm)). Net loss attributable to Groundfloor was about $14.3 million in 2024 and $10.4 million in 2025, and the accumulated deficit was about $64.8 million at December 31, 2025. This matters because an LRO is an obligation of Groundfloor Finance itself, secured by the underlying loan; if the company failed, you would be exposed as a corporate creditor, not just to one flip. The company is improving: total revenue rose to $45.6 million in 2025 from $26.7 million in 2024, and it facilitated 1,182 developer loans versus 981 the year before, per the FY2025 Form 1-K. But the going-concern paragraph was repeated in the FY2025 audit report. Returns and losses come next. Groundfloor reports roughly 10% average annualized returns since 2013 (9.91% as of July 2025) and a sub-1% loss ratio (0.94% in a July 2025 update). Workouts on defaulted loans can lock capital for two to five years, and a small, undiversified position can trail platform averages badly. Liquidity is minimal. There is no early exit and no secondary market for LROs; capital is committed until the loan repays or the collateral is sold. The Notes product (now open to all investors, advertised around 8.5% fixed APY) is term-locked but offers more exit choices, and short Rollover Notes carry a 30-day cancellation window. A recent negative development: effective July 1, 2026, Groundfloor stopped covering IRA custodial fees, so IRA holders now pay Forge Trust directly. Because each LRO counts as a separate asset, per-asset custodial fees can stack quickly. Trustpilot shows a TrustScore of 1.9 out of 5 across 409 reviews as of September 25, 2026 ([Trustpilot](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/groundfloor.us)). How it compares: the obvious alternative is Fundrise, a diversified real estate fund returning roughly 5.75% (2024) and 6.24% (2025) with quarterly, sometimes gated, redemptions. Groundfloor targets higher yield and returns capital faster through short terms, but it concentrates risk in individual flips and adds issuer solvency risk that Fundrise does not carry.