Acre Trader is based on a simple premise: smart investors have been building wealth by investing in farmland, and they’ve been doing it for centuries.
But there’s a problem.
Owning farmland requires a lot of capital, agricultural knowledge, and the ability to manage a farm.
This makes it incredibly difficult for the average person to invest in farmland.
Enter AcreTrader, which allows you to now buy shares of farmland in just minutes online.
Carry on for my Acre Trader review.
AcreTrader works with landowners to find the right farmland, and then puts each parcel through a rigorous selection process.
Each farm offering is then placed in its own legal entity and divided into shares that are sold through AcreTrader’s secure investor portal.
Investors can buy shares, then relax while AcreTrader takes care of everything else.
Each share should receive annual cash payments from the farmers renting the land.
And with rapidly increasing food demand, the value of the shares is expected to grow over time as the price of the land increases.
Historically, farmland has low volatility and returns that outperform most other major asset classes. This makes it an attractive investment during both good and bad economic times.
AcreTrader has a minimum investment amount of $10,000.
Their goal is to make this as passive as possible for you.
How bad are their fees?
Acre Trader charges 0.75% for an asset management fee, which is almost unheard of in the world of private equity and alternative investing.
You’re not charged a fee to invest; instead, they charge the seller of the land a real estate transaction fee.
“This makes us unique,” says CEO Carter Malloy.
“We participate in a fee that’s already being paid in the sale of the farm,” he continues.
“Our goal, put very simply, is to have the lowest fees possible. We want to be the central clearing house for farmland.”
“We wanna be the platform that people come in to invest on. And we know in order to get there, in order to have that volume, and to have a meaningfully positive impact on our investors’ lives and on our farmers’ lives, we as a platform need to be low-fee.”
“So that’s been a core mantra for us since day one,” Carter says.
What is AcreTrader’s executive team’s track record?
They’ve got decades of collective experience in both financial services and agriculture.
Carter previously worked with a $1 billion investment fund; their COO, Garrott McClintock, co-managed north of $200 million in farmland investments.
Do you need to be an accredited investor to participate?
As of right now, yes. Which means:
- You need to either have a net worth of $1 million or more.
- Or an income of $200,000 per year (for the last two years, and projected for this year as well).
- Or you and your spouse must have a combined yearly income of $300,000 or more (with those same stipulations).
If you invest with AcreTrader, do you own the actual property?
Yes and no. While you don’t own a specific location on the subject property, you do have ownership in the LLC or Partnership entity that holds legal title to the land.
How to get started?
Just set up a free account at AcreTrader.com. Once logged in, you can view active listings and begin investing within mere minutes. Again, assuming you’re an accredited investor.
Your personal financial information will be both private and protected by a third party company – the same one Venmo uses, in fact.
What about selling your shares, right?
They say most investors will hold ownership for 5-10 years. Upon sale of the land, you’ll get your principal and any appreciation above and beyond that. Or, you can try to sell some or all of your shares, at any time (it seems like), via the AcreTrader Marketplace.
Last but not least, what can you expect, overall, in terms of ROI?
According to their website, approximately 11% annually. Which, not gonna lie, sounds amazing right about now given how my stocks and crypto are doing.