AcreTrader applies for broker-dealer license

In a transfer that will enable it to work extra intently with farmers, Fayetteville land brokerage AcreTrader plans to acquire a securities broker-dealer license.

Firm leaders Carter Malloy (CEO) and Garrett McClintock (COO) mentioned the information Wednesday (Feb. 1) in the course of the firm’s annual enterprise replace webinar.

Dealer-dealers purchase and promote securities for his or her accounts or on behalf of consumers. As a result of most brokerages act as brokers and principals, the time period broker-dealer is utilized in U.S. securities regulation.

McClintock stated having a broker-dealer license will allow AcreTrader to supply an alternative choice to conventional financing choices for its farming companions.

“We additionally imagine the license will assist us be higher companions when advising farmers on what buildings and investments our buyers are thinking about,” he stated. “It ought to enable us to do extra and be higher at our jobs.”

The applying course of is advanced and could be prolonged. AcreTrader filed its software with FINRA —the Monetary Business Regulatory Authority — this previous spring, and the corporate is awaiting approval.

AcreTrader’s roughly 45-minute webinar touched on numerous highlights because the enterprise approaches its fifth anniversary. Utilizing proprietary know-how, AcreTrader presents a novel actual property crowdfunding platform. Accredited buyers should purchase shares of farmland as a substitute of different property like residential or business actual property.

Minimal investments vary from $10,000 to $30,000. Investments generate returns in two methods: appreciation over time plus potential revenue from agricultural manufacturing or timber harvest on the land. When accessible, annual revenue is distributed to buyers in every property proportionally to their possession share, whereas appreciation is often captured upon the asset’s exit or sale.

AcreTrader researches numerous farmland parcels throughout the nation — starting from numerous varieties of row crops, orchards and timberland — and even Australia to determine which of them might be most worthwhile and enticing to buyers.

“Simply as diversification of property is essential in an funding portfolio, diversification in an asset like land may help unfold danger and enhance returns,” Malloy stated. “We attempt to supply our buyers loads of alternative to do this.”

AcreTrader chooses lower than 5% of the parcels it critiques. Chosen properties are positioned in a separate authorized entity from AcreTrader, like an LLC, through which buyers purchase shares. The authorized entity owns the land. By extension, buyers personal the land.

Malloy, an Arkansas native and College of Arkansas graduate with a level in physics, is the founder.

“We imagine shopping for and promoting land must be widespread, clear and simple for farmers, buyers, landowners and everybody thinking about land,” he stated. “A well-functioning market means higher outcomes for farmers we work with, for the buyers and diversification of their portfolios, and for the agricultural communities the place a lot of this funding goes. And admittedly, the place we come from.”

Malloy stated AcreTrader, since its founding, had made greater than 8,500 distributions to buyers. The corporate made roughly 6,200 of these final yr.

“Over 90% of lively funding properties generated a distribution final yr better than or equal to what was anticipated by AcreTrader’s inner fashions,” Malloy stated. “It is a good indicator of the historic resiliency of this asset class towards some vital financial headwinds.”

AcreTrader has greater than 40,000 farmland acres in 18 U.S. states and Australia underneath administration, $311 million in funds raised on its platform and $385 million in whole property underneath administration.

“It excites us that [farmland] investing has caught on amongst early adopters, and the media has began to choose up on that as nicely,” Malloy stated. “For some context, 5 years in the past, after we began, the time period’ farm land investing’ acquired round 30 searches a month on Google. Now, we’re seeing options in Barron’s, Wall Road [Journal], Bloomberg and the like. However arguably, it’s nonetheless very early right here in land and farmland in contrast with different [investment] property. Each as an trade and for us as a enterprise.”

McClintock additionally mentioned the expansion of Acres, the corporate’s land evaluation device for desktop and cellular purposes. It offers entry to complete information for 150 million U.S. parcels, native insights and comparable gross sales.

Whereas quite a few public databases can be found, discovering and valuing land requires logging into a number of techniques, reconciling conflicting information and hours of analysis to know primary details about a property.

McClintock stated the Acres platform is a key a part of the corporate’s mission to make shopping for and promoting land widespread, clear and simple.

AcreTrader introduced the Acres launch in October, and it already has almost 100,000 customers registered with an account.

The launch of Acres adopted AcreTrader’s $60 million Sequence B funding spherical final yr and continued development throughout the corporate’s platform.

Malloy stated recession rumblings, inflation issues and different financial components are a part of the corporate’s 2023 forecast.

“We have no idea, and don’t fake that we all know, what is definitely going to occur within the U.S. financial system nor in farmland within the rapid time period,” he defined. “However, after we zoom out and look over a long-term interval, it’s vital to notice that there’s a long-term pattern right here that has been established that we are able to observe.

“Alongside that, there are a number of supporting fundamentals.  As a complete, we’re  seeing some good fundamentals within the U.S. farm financial system.”

AcreTrader has 120 workers and is hiring for numerous open positions. The roles are accessible at this hyperlink.