The fee number every platform hides

Fundrise charges 1%. Arrived charges 1%. Groundfloor charges 0%. So they're roughly equivalent, right?

No. Not even close.

The metric that actually matters

The headline fee is the wrong number. What you actually want to know is how much of your expected returns the fee consumes.

Math:

• VNQ (public REIT ETF): 0.13% fee on ~8% historical return = 1.6% of returns gone to fees
• Fundrise Flagship: 1.0% fee on ~8% target return = 12.5% of returns gone to fees
• Arrived single-family: 1.0% management + 3.5% sourcing on a 5-year hold = roughly 25-30% of returns gone to fees (year 1 is the worst — the sourcing fee front-loads)
• EquityMultiple common equity: 2% fee + profit share after 7% pref on a 12% target IRR = roughly 16-25% of returns gone to fees

Same three letters: "1%." Wildly different bites out of your money.

Why platforms hide it

No platform shows you fee-to-return ratio because it would make their fees look bigger relative to peers. Fundrise saying "12.5% of your returns" sounds worse than "1% management fee" — even though both are true.

How to use it

When you're comparing two platforms, do the calculation yourself. Take the all-in fee (management + sourcing + servicing + any profit share at exit), divide by the platform's stated target return, and you get the share of your money the fees will consume before you see a dollar.

If two platforms target similar returns, pick the one where fees consume less of those returns. That's it. That's the comparison.

The full breakdown — every platform's fee math →

— Jorge