SAN FRANCISCO—The SEC's most recent changes tothe JOBS Act allow small non-accredited investorsto participate on the equity side in real estate.These changes allow crowdfunding to become even more prevalent andenhance its legitimacy as a source of real estate capital. We spokewith Olga Koroleva, founder and CEO, andLarry Souza, chief economist, with SanFrancisco-based Monetarex, an investment platformfor commercial real estate professionals, abouthow these changes affect the CRE industry.

GlobeSt.com: How will the most recent changes to theJOBS Act impact commercial real estate?

Souza: In a historical context, thesechanges represent an extension of the evolution and innovation ofreal estate capital-markets product. It's the democratization ofparticipation by small investors in commercial real estate, andit's great because most small investors can't participate in CREinvestment directly—it's too expensive. Because it's private,public equity investments should behave more like the underlyingreal estate asset vs. a security traded on an exchange. But really,the ability to create transparency will be the biggest contributionand the biggest hurdle overcome—to have sponsors providetransparency not only of their overall business model andleadership, but also the performance of an underlying asset in aportfolio over a period of time on an ongoing basis.