About YDLP Investments

YDLP makes it their business to spread the wealth of commercial real estate investing to small investors. They have branded themselves as “The Home of the $10,000 Commercial Real Estate Investment.”

The group primarily invests in commercial real estate in the United States, has sourced over $11MM in equity from small investors, distributes a free educational podcast, and offers educational services to help commercial real estate investment novices make good decisions.

The group believes that regardless of the size of your investments, it is important to be diversified. Therefore, the real estate held in their investment offering portfolio is spread amongst investors according to their needs. While this strategy works well to lower risks for investors, it creates an excessive amount of detailed administrative work for the company.

Challenges and Objectives

The overarching concern for YDLP was how to handle workflows for investor reporting and communications. When the company started in 2016, they were using an al-a-carte technology strategy—utilizing readily available services such as Gmail, Excel, GoogleDocs, and more.

Early on, they identified the need for security when emailing documents, reports, and tax information to clients. To solve this problem, the company used additional services to password-protect sensitive information and sign important documents.

As the company grew, data security became an even greater concern, alongside the need to provide investors with a better experience and simplified communications specifically around distributions. It became clear that this part of the business required integration to continue to deliver quality service and investor returns as more small investors came into the fold. So, the company set out to find an investment platform that could meet their needs.

How Agora Helped

After an exhaustive search, YDLP chose the Agora real estate investment platform for its UX design and services. Upon speaking with Agora, YDLP understood that the platform was highly customizable and fit YDLP’s vision for growth.

As a customer service-oriented SaaS company, Agora helped Raphi Bloch and the rest of the YDLP team become oriented with the platform and upload their information to the cloud. Agora additionally worked with the company to ensure that their data retrieval solutions ran smoothly before the client launch.

YDLP also appreciated Agora’s efforts to consistently improve the user experience with customer feedback in mind. When YDLP had questions about implementing customization, the Agora tech team responded in minutes and quickly helped adjust the platform to fit their needs.

Overall, Agora improved YDLP’s customer satisfaction with a dedicated investor portal and solved security issues with investor information and financials. The platform allowed YDLP to streamline its record-keeping, reporting, and communication with clients. As a result, Agora is helping the company save valuable time and accelerate its growth while improving its already high-quality service and client-facing image of professionalism.

Deep Dive into the Results

In an interview with Raphi, Agora learned that due to the many diversified small investors they serve, each investor distribution email needed to be typed out and associated with separate passwords to sensitive documents. This solution required Raphi to spend upwards of three full work days each month putting together and sending these emails. Using Agora allows him to complete this work in an hour or two.

The Agora platform also improved day-to-day client communications. Rather than keeping track of long email strings or painstakingly organizing and searching inboxes, all client communications executed in Agora are organized and easy to track. YDLP found this to be an effective time-saver, allowing the company to focus on striking new deals and expanding its portfolio. Moreover, clients reported the change as a significant improvement to their experience with the company.

Another concern for YDLP was data security. Raphi and the rest of the team questioned the security of emailed client communications. Their original solution of password protecting sensitive information was complicated for clients to navigate. With Agora, clients are alerted by email to check their investment portal for updates and actions they need to take. Additionally, clients can log in to their portals to find current and historical transactions, payout information, and documentation.

Agora completely removed the need to communicate sensitive information or passwords to sensitive information by email. This change made the company feel more secure. It also increased client trust in YDLP’s capabilities as a commercial real estate investment firm.

In addition to all the practical improvements, the Agora platform also greatly improved the company’s client-facing image. While clients were happy to consistently receive emails about payouts and money in their accounts. They reported being elated to have a thoughtfully designed portal to log into, communicate with YDLP, and check on their investments. Clients were also pleased about the option to view and assess new investment opportunities. The interactive portal increased client engagement, trust, and loyalty to YDLP.

What Raphi Bloch had to say

Raphi reported being pleased with his experience with Agora and how the service has changed his company. Here are some direct quotes from a recent interview with him.

  • “Every request we had was dealt with very quickly……in minutes it would be solved…it’s how a company deals with it that shows how good it is.”
  • “I know the distribution announcements will go out accurately and more professionally looking than an email, and also importantly the notices will stay on the portal so if a person misses it or needs to go back and find it, they will be able to find it.” He also noted the key benefits as “accuracy, time, and security.”
  • “Anything that saves me three days of work, I like.”
  • “Clients were happy that the platform looked nice and that it’s secure; emails are notoriously unsecure.”
  • Raphi also mentioned that YDLP is striving to comfortably make one new deal a month and said, “it would be impossible to get to that point without Agora.”

Last Thoughts

The transition to the Agora platform saved YLDP time and money spent on administrative work. As Raphi mentioned, the Agora platform will also enable the company to grow faster and scale up to comfortably making one new deal a month. They also appreciated the flexibility and customization options the platform had to offer. The Agora real estate investment management platform can help you level up your investor communications, internal communications, fundraising, growth acceleration, and much more. Contact us if you are looking for ways to save time in front of the screen; we’d be happy to have a chat with you!