BEVERLY HILLS, CA-Private real estate investments are making their mark on the industry. Realty Mogul, a marketplace for accredited investors to pool money online and buy shares of pre-vetted real estate investments, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively that over the four-year period from 2009 to 2012, aggregate capital raised for real estate private placements accounted for $63 billion, excluding capital raised under private-equity and hedge-fund indicators.

During the same time period, there were 5,617 separate Reg D offerings for real estate, 1,900 separate offerings in 2012 alone, the firm reports. The median offering size for real estate offerings was $2.3 million, while the average was $15 million.

Also, Realty Mogul reports that more than 47,000 investors participated in private real estate placements in 2012. The average number of investors in a real estate syndication was 25 in 2012, compared to a median of seven investors.

"The statistics show that direct-participation real estate investments continue to be an attractive investment alternative—and these rates do not, of course, reflect the depreciation deductions and other tax advantages available through the pass-through legal entities utilized in most of these transactions," Jilliene Helman, CEO and founder of Realty Mogul, tells GlobeSt.com. "The statistics now cover transactions offered from coast to coast, and commercial properties running the gamut from multifamily apartments, retail shopping centers and office buildings to self-storage facilities and industrial properties."

Almost two-thirds of the transactions surveyed were structured as preferred equity. The firm's research shows that the average preferred return rate to investors in private real estate transactions over the last 12 months was 8.35%, slightly down from the 8.5% earlier reported, and the average promote structure was a 72/28 split. The preferred returns ranged from 5% on the low end to 12% on the high end, and the promote and fee structures also varied widely.

Of the transactions surveyed, the most favorable promote to investors was 80/20 (80% to investor, 20% to sponsor), while the least favorable promote to investors was 50/50. A total of 85% of the transactions provide for a promote structure, and 68% of transactions had promotes between 70/30 and 80/20.

During 2013, Realty Mogul analyzed $1 billion in private real estate transactions, including 73 private placements and 60 unique private real estate sponsors. The firm found that, by property type, the greatest number and dollar amount of transactions that it analyzed was multifamily, followed by office, retail, self-storage, industrial and student housing. The greatest number and dollar amount of transactions occurred in Texas, followed by California, before dropping significantly to Colorado and other states.

As GlobeSt.com recently reported, methods for verifying accredited investors have been clarified by the SEC. Helman says her firm plans "to make Reg D 506(c) investments, which require additional investor verification." She adds that her firm is affiliated with a broker-dealer, "so our broker-dealer partner is able to coordinate the investor verification process. This is currently done offline."