There are usually three layers, and platform pages tend to show you one.
The platform layer is the fee you see. On fund products this is commonly quoted as an annual advisory or management fee, often somewhere around 1 percent of assets, sometimes with a separate small servicing fee. On single-deal marketplaces the platform may charge the sponsor rather than you, in which case "no investor fees" is technically accurate.
The sponsor layer is where most of the cost sits and it rarely appears on the summary page. Typical items are an acquisition fee of 1 to 3 percent of purchase price, an asset management fee of 1 to 2 percent a year, sometimes a disposition fee when the property sells, and a promote, meaning the sponsor's share of profits above a hurdle. A common structure is an 8 percent preferred return to investors and then a 70/30 or 80/20 split of profits above that, sponsor taking the smaller share. Those numbers vary deal to deal and live in the offering documents.
The property layer is property management, leasing commissions, and financing costs, which any owner pays.
On your REIT comparison: a listed REIT index fund can cost a few basis points a year and you can sell it any afternoon. Crowdfunded deals cost far more and lock your money up for years. What you're paying for is deal-level selection and property-level returns that don't move with the stock market every day. Whether that's worth the spread is your call, and it's worth writing down the total drag on both sides before you decide. Your hard money experience actually helps here, because you already read fee structures for a living.
