How BaseLots Works
BaseLots isn't open for investment yet. Here's how it will work. You'll be able to own a piece of a rental home starting at $50. No landlord headaches and no big down payment.
Step by Step
Browse Properties
You'll look through homes with photos, locations, and estimates. Each offering will give you the details you need to decide.
Create an Account
You'll sign up on the SEC-registered intermediary's platform and confirm who you are. The law requires this to stop fraud.
Pick Your Investment
You'll pick a property and choose how many shares to buy. Each share is called a BLOCK and is planned at $50.
Your Money Waits at a Bank
Your money will wait in a locked bank account (called escrow) until the offering closes. The account will be set up by the regulated investment platform, registered with the SEC, that runs the offering. You can cancel up to 48 hours before the deadline.
Get Your BLOCK tokens
If the offering reaches its goal and closes, your BLOCK tokens will go to your digital wallet (an account that holds them). Each BLOCK is your share of the property.
Receive Your Share of the Rent
As the home collects rent, you'll get your share after expenses and fees. Your share also reflects the home's value.
What Is a BLOCK?
A BLOCK will be your digital proof of ownership. Think of it like a stock certificate, but for real estate. Each BLOCK will represent an equal part of the investor-owned share of a specific property.
Who owns each BLOCK will be recorded on Arbitrum, a fast, low-cost blockchain built on Ethereum. A blockchain is a public digital ledger that anyone can check. It will be the official record of who owns what. You won't need to understand any of this. We'll handle the technical side.
Each BLOCK is planned at $50. For example, if investors bought a $100,000 share of a home, that share would be split into 2,000 BLOCK tokens. Each offering will state what percentage of the property's company the BLOCK tokens represent.
Your Rights as an Investor
BaseLots plans to follow a federal law called Regulation Crowdfunding. It sets rules for offerings to everyday investors. As BaseLots grows, more ways to invest may become available.
Yearly Investment Limits
Federal rules cap how much you can put into these offerings each year. The cap is based on your income and net worth (what you own minus what you owe, not counting your main home). This keeps you from investing more than you can afford. The cap doesn't apply to accredited investors, people with $200,000+ income or $1 million+ net worth.
Cancel Up to 48 Hours Before the Deadline
You can cancel your investment commitment for any reason up to 48 hours before the offering deadline and receive a full refund.
You Get Notified of Changes
If an offering changes in an important way, we'll tell you and ask you to confirm again. If you don't, your commitment is canceled and your money is returned.
Following Federal Rules
Each offering will follow federal crowdfunding rules. It will run through a regulated investment platform registered with the SEC. Before it opens, BaseLots will file a public disclosure document with the SEC.
Fees
Platform Fee
BaseLots plans to charge a fee of 0.5% a year of the value of the investor-owned share, updated with the FHFA house price index. The property's company (its LLC) pays it after property taxes, insurance, the property manager's fee and the repair reserve. The fee will be shown in each offering before you commit.
Annual Management Fee
The property manager is planned to be paid a fee for running the home day to day, arranging repairs, and reporting. It will come out of rent after property taxes and insurance are set aside, along with a planned repair reserve.
BaseLots also plans to charge a one-time fee when each property purchase closes, and to hold an ownership share in each property's company. The exact share will be listed in each offering. Each offering will also list all fees.