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Although still in its early stages, crowdfunding for commercialreal estate has come far as a means for increasing the availabilityof capital to borrowers and allowing more people to invest in realestate. But with regulatory concerns still looming, just how farwill this method of raising funds be allowed to progress, and howquickly?

Recently, Real Estate Forum sister publicationGlobeSt.com polled readers about their views on crowdfunding,asking, “Will the proposed changes to the JOBS Act, requiringless-stringent barriers to crowdfunding, help or hurtcrowdfunding?” Of the 128 votes that came in, 75 (59%) said theproposed changes would help, adding that lessening the requirementswill open more channels of investment, and any favorable rulingwill increase its viability; 25 (20%) said the changes will hurtcrowdfunding, and that removing the safeguards will invite morefraud; while 28 (21%) responded neither, that it's a niche productthat targets a niche category, and opening it to more investorswon't increase its market share. It's apparent that most peoplethink loosening the restrictions on who can invest will be apositive step for the CRE arena, although there are still someconcerns about this move inviting fraud—a major caveat with onlineinvesting.