Making Institutional-Grade Real Estate Deals Available to Everyday Investors Through Relli

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

30 Oct 2025

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The real estate investment world has long been divided. On one side, institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals access complex syndications and development deals that generate strong returns. On the other, most investors are limited to homeownership or publicly traded REITs, missing out on the strategies that have built substantial wealth over generations.

Mor Milo, CEO of Relli, experienced this divide personally. An immigrant who arrived in the United States as a baby, Milo saw his parents build wealth through real estate, buying “one house, then another house and another house and an apartment here and apartment there.” When Milo and his business partner Ross Iannarelli tried to invest their own capital in real estate, they encountered a frustrating reality.

“We essentially thought to ourselves, if we want to be real estate investors and we want to have a similar experience to Fidelity or E*Trade or Charles Schwab or Robinhood or Coinbase, platforms that provide a consolidated portfolio where we could buy little pieces as opposed to big assets, we would prefer to have that type of experience,” Milo says. “What we discovered was that it really didn’t exist.”

The Hidden World of Real Estate Syndications

The challenge is not a lack of investment opportunities, but a lack of access. Thousands of real estate firms raise large sums each year from high-net-worth individuals, operating sophisticated investment vehicles that remain out of reach for most investors.

“I can tell you that for a fact, because I have one right now that’s about to launch a deal on our platform that manages over 30,000 units, and you’ve never heard his name, you’ve never heard their company name,” Milo says. “The reason being is because they have relationships with institutions that have big money. And if you have relationships with big institutions with big money, then you don’t need retail investors.”

This creates a market where advanced investment opportunities exist alongside a growing number of potential investors who cannot access them. The wealthy have been “syndicating real estate investments for decades and centuries, and that’s a large percentage of most of their portfolios,” while average consumers remain unaware of these options.

A Growing Market Mismatch

Current conditions are putting pressure on both sides. Real estate developers are finding that institutional capital is not as readily available as it was several years ago, while retail investors are increasingly priced out of traditional real estate investments.

“A single family home is half a million dollars, that’s the average in America. How do you make money on that? You need 20% down to be able to find any sort of cash flow. That’s 100 grand to buy a single family house that maybe turns $1,500 a month in rent,” Milo says.

This creates “a very interesting crossroads” where developers need capital and investors seek better returns, but the two groups lack efficient ways to connect.

Relli’s Strategic Approach to Market Access

Instead of launching a full marketplace immediately, Relli chose to build credibility and infrastructure step by step. After talking to 150 sponsors over three years, Milo and his team learned that real estate developers needed help with marketing and lead generation before they could consider new investment structures.

“They loved our idea, but they’re like, ‘Hey dude, we need help with where we’re at right now. This sounds great, but you’ve never done it before. It’s new compliance, it’s new headaches, it’s big problems, it’s big expenses. Why don’t you try to help us with where we’re at today, which is we need more access to accredited investors?’” Milo recalls.

Relli now helps sponsors generate 20 to 50 leads each month with less than $3,000 in advertising spend, building relationships and credibility while working toward their larger vision of creating what Milo describes as “a stock market for real estate.”

Investment Structure and Risk

For investors, Relli’s platform aims to offer a user experience similar to traditional brokerage accounts, but with real estate-backed securities. Investment structures differ by deal but typically involve either debt-based funds, where investors participate in mortgage notes, or equity positions in property portfolios such as single-family vacation rentals.

“Think about it like if you’re on the stock market, if you invest in a growth stock, you’re going to put your money in and let it grow. If you invest in a dividend stock, then every quarter you’re going to get a dividend paid out to you,” Milo says. “In this case, it would be to your bank account.”

However, Milo is careful to clarify the risks: “These are investments. They’re not insurances. With investments comes risk. This is not an FDIC insured product.” The main difference, he notes, is that these opportunities are backed by hard assets.

“What I like about our product in comparison to everything else that’s out in the market is the fact that there’s a hard asset at the base of every single one of these investment opportunities, unlike a cryptocurrency or a stock or a SPAC,” Milo says. “This business owns a piece of property, there’s a hard asset alongside this investment opportunity to protect against downside.”

The Education Gap

Perhaps the biggest barrier to democratizing real estate investment is educational. Milo estimates that “5% maximum of the people that qualify to invest in these deals know about them, and 95% of the people that qualify don’t even know that they exist or that it’s possible.”

This lack of awareness affects even well-off investors. Milo describes a Florida-based sales professional earning $300,000–$400,000 annually with $5 million in assets who was “literally going on LinkedIn and sleuthing out all of the real estate operators across the country, taking 15 to 20 meetings every single month with new operators to try to find deals.”

“He’s not big enough for the private institutions to have access to him, because those are $10 million-plus people, and he’s way too big for the average financial advisor that’s pitching you on insurance policies and annuities,” Milo says. “So he’s stuck in this weird middle ground.”

Bridging the Gap for Both Sides

Relli’s approach is designed to address this gap from both directions. For sponsors, the company provides access to a broader pool of accredited investors, helping them fill funding needs as institutional capital becomes harder to secure. For investors, Relli offers exposure to deals that were previously out of reach, with the convenience and transparency of a brokerage-style platform.

By focusing on education, Relli aims to make the process less intimidating. The platform provides resources to help investors understand not only the potential returns, but also the risks and mechanics of each deal. The goal is to empower a new class of investors to participate in real estate opportunities that have traditionally been reserved for a select few.

Looking Forward: Regulatory Changes and Marketplace Evolution

Milo sees potential for regulatory changes to further open the market. “The SEC is becoming more friendly from the perspective of lowering the barrier for the accredited investor, such that more people can invest in these types of deals, and the access is becoming significantly more available.”

Relli’s long-term goal is to obtain broker-dealer status, enabling the company to facilitate transactions directly rather than simply connecting investors with sponsors. This would create the foundation for a true marketplace where investors could manage diversified real estate portfolios in one place.

For now, the company is focused on building both sides of the marketplace, helping sponsors reach new investor audiences and educating potential investors about opportunities they may not have known existed. As the lines between institutional and retail investing blur across asset classes, real estate is set for similar change.

The Future of Real Estate Investing

The transformation of real estate investing is not a question of if, but when. As platforms like Relli build the necessary infrastructure and educate a wider investor base, access to institutional-grade opportunities will continue to grow.

For many, this shift represents a chance to participate in wealth-building strategies that have long been out of reach. With hard assets at the core and increasing regulatory support for broader access, real estate investing is becoming more inclusive.

Relli’s phased approach, starting with lead generation and relationship building, moving toward a full-scale marketplace, reflects the realities of the industry and the needs of both sponsors and investors. By combining technology, education, and a focus on transparency, the company aims to bridge the longstanding divide in real estate investing.

As the market evolves, the pace of change will depend on how quickly platforms can deliver both the tools and the knowledge investors need to participate confidently. With more investors gaining access to previously hidden opportunities, the landscape of real estate investing is on the verge of significant transformation.