Tyler Vinson from REtokens on Making Institutional Real Estate Accessible to Retail Investors

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

24 Mar 2025

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For Tyler Vinson, real estate investment began conventionally enough in 2002, purchasing duplexes in Spokane, Washington. Two decades later, he’s working to reshape how everyday investors access property markets through blockchain technology and digital securities.

“My life mantra has been to help people build wealth through real estate and achieve freedom through cash flow,” says Vinson, founder of REtokens. This vision emerged from witnessing persistent barriers in traditional real estate investment—particularly for retail investors seeking institutional-quality opportunities.

The Path to Digital Innovation

Through his real estate investment brokerage, EXN Investment Company, Vinson encountered recurring challenges: illiquid investments, high minimum buy-ins, and limited access to quality deals for most potential investors.

A pivotal moment came during a chance encounter at his daughter’s soccer game. “A friend from high school approached me about investing,” Vinson recalls. “She and her husband had been saving diligently, but before she could even ask, she knew they wouldn’t have enough money to meet the minimum investment thresholds. That just broke my heart.”

This interaction, combined with managing millions in real estate equity with limited liquidity options, led Vinson to explore blockchain-based solutions.

The REtokens Approach

REtokens is developing a two-sided marketplace for tokenized real estate securities:

Primary Offering Platform

The company provides a capital-raising platform where real estate operators can tokenize LLC membership interests in properties, handle investor verification, and access legal services for necessary documentation.

Regulated Secondary

Market REtokens is launching its own Alternative Trading System (ATS) for trading real estate tokens. “There are only a handful of operating digital ATSs in the United States that are SEC-compliant,” Vinson explains. “None specialize in real estate, and they’re not doing significant volume.”

Quality Control and Due Diligence

“If I’m going to send my friend from the soccer game, or our kids, or our grandparents there, you need a good reputation for what’s on the platform,” Vinson emphasizes. REtokens implements a multi-layer vetting process for all projects.

Currently, the platform conducts detailed underwriting for deal quality, feasibility, and operator credentials. “We run a feasibility check and have a third-party financial analysis service,” Vinson explains. “We verify that the operator is of quality and has a proven track record, and that the project itself is feasible.”

With the upcoming broker-dealer certification, the company will implement even more rigorous standards. “At the broker-dealer level, it’s a full certification and due diligence process,” says Vinson. “It’s extremely intense financial analysis with deep dives. All issuers have to go through KYC background checks and AML verification.”

The company is also developing standardized reporting frameworks to attract institutional capital. “We’re working on standardization in these packages,” Vinson notes. “This will allow more institutional investors to enter the space because it’s easier for them to do their underwriting. Companies like Moody’s are interested in grading real estate security tokens—we just need more on-chain activity and standardization.”

Direct Ownership

Structure Unlike REITs, which offer shares in a property fund, REtokens provides direct ownership interests in specific properties. “What you get with a real estate token is legitimate piece of ownership in a piece of real estate,” Vinson explains. “Token holders receive pro-rata distributions of net operating income, K-1 tax benefits, and direct exposure to property appreciation.”

Looking Ahead

As REtokens approaches its ATS launch in mid-2024, Vinson sees potential for broader market impact. “There’s hundreds of billions of dollars of Reg D’s out there already in real estate projects,” he notes. “Those that are already past the 12-month lock-up period will be able to get a bolt-on addendum to be tokenized and brought directly onto the secondary market.”

The implications extend beyond simple trading efficiency. “In inflationary environments, those with assets gained significantly, like real estate, but those without continue to get eroded,” Vinson explains. “Now they’ll actually have access to real world assets—they can even dollar-cost average into real estate.”

He points to a storage complex already slated for the secondary market: “We are constantly improving the net operating income, which means the cash flows constantly improve, which means the value constantly improves. Token holders benefit from all of that improvement, and they can custody these themselves.”

While regulatory and technical challenges remain, REtokens represents an emerging approach to modernizing real estate investment through digital securities. The vision isn’t just about technology—it’s about expanding access. As Vinson puts it: “This is solving problems way beyond real estate.”