Lots of potential, but do your homework! An excerpt from marketwatch.com:

Crowdfunding in real estate comes in two flavors: tangible properties and personal mortgages.

The first is a platform where clients can browse vetted property deals, like a plan to turn an old industrial site into luxury apartments. Then, you choose what you want to invest in. Some platforms also allow you to purchase shares in existing properties and later sell your real estate ownership to other investors on the platform, providing a possible avenue for liquidity. Primarq is among the few focused solely on the residential side, enabling investors to own part of residential homes along with the actual resident of the property, and to participate in any appreciation in the home’s value.

Whereas you could spend countless hours investigating properties on your own to make a buying decision, these online platforms conduct the due diligence for you and strive to put forward quality property deals for their clients to choose from. Fees vary depending on the project and the crowdfunding firm, but typically include an upfront fee for a successful funding round with an additional annual 1% fee on your investment amount.

Some sites, like RealtyShares, charge the borrower and not the investor. Another site, GroundFloor, doesn’t currently charge any fees, but that could change. Be careful about sites that say there are no fees to join or to view investments but that may have fees once you make an investment.

Members of some sites, such as Collaperty, can write reviews. Login access or dashboards may feature performance reports and updates on your investments.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect for those small investors is that this presents a way to get in on the ground floor. “Getting into an investment when one investment changes from one hand to another isn’t as lucrative as getting in early, on the ground floor,” Easterbrook points out.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-use-crowdfunding-to-invest-in-real-estate-2014-02-07