美国2013年度众融人物赫尔曼


【题记】Jilliene Helman女士因采用众融的方式开创了房地产领域的市场融资,而获得了2013年度众融人物的殊荣。在房地产这样如此巨额的领域,进行众融,这需要多大、多完备的网络信用来支撑?但在这个一切都“互联网化”的时代,一切皆有可能!

早在2012年,好友北京外国语大学国际商学院院长牛华勇,在评价美国的JOBS法案(《创业企业扶助法》)时就撰文“众融”模式 颠覆传统金融的革命》,认为:“很显然,这几乎是一部只有在美国才有可能率先成为现实的法案,其他任何国家的法律和治理框 架,都难以容忍部分人士对该部法律诸多细节的质疑。包括我们在内,其他国家人士所有的溢美之词,都是出于对本国商业机构后知后觉和本国监管当局无所作为的 懊恼及悔恨。不过可以预料的是,用不了太久,各国模仿该法案的浪潮就会到来。现在你就可以想象,各国监管当局一边模仿,一边故作沉思的样子。

By Robert J. Mullins , CFB Senior Staff  Writer

Jilliene Helman has discovered the power of using crowdfunding to open up the market for real estate investments. As the co-founder of Realty Mogul, along with partner Justin Hughes, she has already completed multiple deals across the country in just eight months of fulltime operation.

作为Realty Mogul公司的共同创始人,在8个月的时间,她已经完成了多个(美国)全国性的交易。

For her success and for her advocacy on the subject from appearances at several crowdfunding conferences, CrowdfundBeat is awarding Helman its CrowdFunder of the Year Award for 2013.

因为她的成就、以及她对于众融的(行动上的)坚定拥护,她获得了2013年的年度众融人物。

In an interview with CrowdFundBeat Senior Staff Writer Robert Mullins, Helman discusses the new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules on crowdfunding by accredited investors, coming new rules on non-accredited investors and the philosophy behind Realty Mogul:

在一个有关众融的采访中,记者与赫尔曼探讨了美国证券交易委员会(SEC)新颁布有关“认证投资者”的众融规则,以及即将到来的“非认证投资者”的众融规则,以及Realty Mogul公司背后的投资哲学。

Jilliene Helman: The hypothesis that we’ve been operating under is really twofold. On one side, there’s an economic opportunity for investors to invest in real estate and make money investing in real estate and generating income. So all of the transactions that we do generate cash flow for our investors. We’re looking for opportunities to get dividends back to our investors, directly back into their bank accounts. Then the other hypothesis for starting the company was the political rationale.

我们有两个假设。一方面,这对于投资者是一个在房地产领域的商业机会。我们所有的交易都为投资者创造现金流。另一个假设是创办这个公司在“政治上合理”。

The JOBS Act passed through Congress last year and while we still don’t have final regulations on Title III, which is for non-accredited crowdfunding, there is a huge market of accredited investors that has been largely untapped.

国会在2012年通过的JOBS法案,但还未最终颁布条款Title III,这是一项涉及“非认证投资人”的条款(林注:2014年4月将通过)。这是一个巨大的市场,认证投资人还未开发。

You look at the number of accredited investors in private placement in 2012 and it was less than 40,000 accredited investors out of 7 or 8 million. So we thought that there’s this political opportunity where people are going to be more comfortable investing through the Internet and we took that economic opportunity and that political opportunity, put them together and out came Realty Mogul.

可以看一下“认证投资人”在2012年私募市场的情形。只有不足4万“认证投资者”从7〜8百万人中挑选出来。所以,我认为(对于广大普通人来说)这是一个“政治机会”。(林注:就是中国所说的“改革红利”)

Robert Mullins: You said in an article that “crowdfunding was revolutionizing capital formation in real estate.” What changes with crowdfunding?

Helman: I think the biggest things are access to deal flow and access to capital. When it comes to deal flow, millions of investors have never had access to deal flow, historically.

这将是历史性的,最大的事件在于,数以百万计的普通人将第一次参与到投资交易中来。

There’s been no simple way to get them access to that deal flow. Now that you have the Internet and have the ability to transact online, we can open that up to millions of investors all over the world. So the access to deal flow is huge. And the flip side is access to capital.

没有简单的方式进行交易。现在人们有了互联网,可以进行在线交易。我们能够开放机会给全球数百万的投资者。

You have these real estate companies who historically were working with the banks, investment banks or the other established players to get capital, but they didn’t have a base of thousands and thousands of investors that they could go to. And that’s where we are. We’re a conduit in the middle and that’s what I think revolutionizes this market.

以往的房地产公司都是只和银行、投资银行、以及其它成熟的金融机构打交道以获得资金,但是他们并不拥有成千上万的投资人。

Mullins: The SEC has approved regulations for accredited investors but the regulations for non-accredited investors won’t be finalized until sometime in 2014. What are your concerns about what the final rules on non-accredited investors will be?

Helman: The rules for accredited investors allow for general solicitation as long as the investors are validated. I think the SEC gave pretty decent guidance on how to accredit those investors.

It’ll be interesting to see with the Title III rules [on non-accredited investors] how they come down on doing simultaneous [fund] raises with accredited and non-accredited investors. It looks like they’re going to deal with that in a way that’s favorable and we’re looking at that very closely.

观察针对“非认证投资人”的Title III规则,将是一件很有意义的事情。

Mullins: What kind of deals have you done so far at Realty Mogul?

Helman: We crowdfunded what we think is the first shopping center in the country, maybe in the world, in Monterey, Calif. We have some top-tier tenants such as Safeway, CVS, Subway, Starbucks, McDonald’s and it was a great opportunity to allow investors, again going back to this nucleus of access to deal flow, many of whom never had access to that type of deal flow.

我们第一次以众融的方式,在美国建设了一个购物中心,可能这在全世界也是第一次。已经入住了一些一流的品牌租房。这对于(真正意义上的)“广大”投资者来说,是一次”核当量“的业务机会。

We own a 267-unit apartment building in Texas, we own a couple of assets in the Kansas market including a shopping center in Lenexa, Kansas, we own a host of single-family homes in the Tennessee market. We’ve done a variety of interesting transactions.

Mullins: Are you seeing competition from other crowdfunding real estate ventures?

Helman: Real estate is a really big space. Real estate alone is a $17 trillion business so there are going to be numerous people who will take to the Internet to raise capital for real estate.

房地产是一个真正的大市场。单独的市场规模就有17万亿。这将使大量的人可以通过互联网融资,进入房地产市场。

At the end of the day I think it’s going to be about performance. We are really proud that eight months in business, we’ve already distributed over $600,000 back out to investors in distribution and principal payments. We really focus on cash flow. The need that we serve is generating income for investors, generating cash flow and also potentially investing for appreciation and longer term investments.

在年末,需要思考一下业绩的问题。我们很自豪在8个月时的业务里,我们就已经让投资人拥有了60万美元的退出回报。我们非常关注现金流。这有利于服务于投资者的创造收入、和长期投资的需求。

Mullins: How did you get into real estate in the first place?

Helman: I grew up talking real estate around the dinner table. My mom’s been in the real estate industry for decades, my father owned commercial and industrial projects. My grandfather built properties in the Los Angeles market, so I really learned my real estate chops from the dinner table.

我从小在讨论房地产话题的餐桌旁边长大。我的母亲从事房地产行业几十年,我的父亲拥有商业和工业的项目。我的祖父在洛杉矶市场建设房地产项目。