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Introductions / Re: Members' Thoughts and Experience with StreetShares
« on: December 29, 2017, 03:28:34 PM »In follow up to my original posts some months ago re: Streetshares... As of now, I've continued to invest both in Veteran Bonds and through the Streetshares Pro platform. The Veteran Bond account provides a conservative, but reasonable return of 5% with withdrawals restricted to a two week anniversary period each year determined by the date the account was opened. Withdrawals are actually permitted any time of the year, but will be credited with a 4% APR return vs. 5%. For cash that one does not want to put in more volatile markets, e.g., the stock market, this is far better than the 1.3 or 1.4 percentages paid by even the internet banks. In eight months of investing with Streetshares I have experienced no delinquencies or charge offs with the "pro" platform. I now have approximately 70 current loans and approximately 40 have been paid in full. 90%+ of my loans are from the most conservative category, having what Streetshares refers to as low expected loss ratios...usually 2% or less and typically providing a 12-15 percent return. I fully realize these are not yet "seasoned" loans, however, many are very short term, 6 weeks, and supported by documented gov't contracts. Resulting from the availability of these short term, contract backed loans, many borrowers are "repeaters", using Streetshares to assist on a short term basis with cash flows. Given the "start/stop" nature of investing in these short term loans, cash does sit idle for a few days here and there, but with the use of the auto investing feature and a bit of diligence week to week this can be minimized. On the upside of the "pro" platform, the frequent turnover of short term loans and resulting cash balances allow funds to be available for withdrawal (without any fee) on a regular basis, providing some level of liquidity without penalty. I've gradually added to both platforms over eight months in 2017. I'll be tracking returns over the full year of 2018 and will try to post occasionally...if anyone is interestedYou might consider reviewing their most recent 1K filing with the SEC. If I recall correctly, they had fairly little cash on hand (~$1m) which would only last about 6 months from the date of the filing based on their burn rate. I think that put them at the end of January 2018 to run out of cash.. I do believe, at this point, Streetshares can significantly outperform my Prosper investment which has steadily declined to the 6% range with substantially less monitoring and effort in reinvestment of funds (never was a fan of Prosper's auto invest feature). Streetshares has continued to be consistently prompt in answering any questions submitted through either their live chat feature or email. This customer service aspect of their business remains in the excellent category for me. Prosper's customer service and responsive was, in my experience, terrible. Last, I read a few posts stating that Streetshares had generated only a few hundred loans and was a tiny operation, etc. I believe, just by viewing the number and size of loans being processed through the website, that it has considerably more business than those characterizations. I feel comfortable with using Streetshares to diversify my investments, particularly in light the stock market's predicted lackluster future. I trust our country's small business and Veteran community more than do I large corporations. Hope to hear from others with their thoughts. Best wishes for a happy and successful new year.
I think they have a good model, but unless they raise substantial new equity capital, I would be very concerned about the solvency of the company.
I don't recall seeing anything about new money raised recently.
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