Last month, I wrote positively about Scalable Capital, but November has turned me from a Scalable Capital promoter into a detractor, to use NPS jargon.
Continue reading “Updates from Scalable Capital and Estateguru”Cool new features at Scalable Capital
I have been a customer of Scalable Capital for seven years, initially with the rather disappointing RoboAdvisor, but for the past two years, I’ve been a satisfied customer of the Prime Broker.
This week, I discovered new features, initially part of them in the desktop app, but everything new that is offered can already be seen in the web app. The new feature is called Insights and is based on data from BlackRock. For this to work, portfolio data is anonymized and sent to BlackRock. First of all, there is a Portfolio Check, where the diversification of the portfolio is assessed.

However, it doesn’t assess the weighting. After seeing this graphic, I invested a bit in a bond, and just like that, the ring was full. Next, there’s a crash simulation, where you can choose from several scenarios. In this simulation, for example, global stock markets drop by 10%, although I previously thought a crash would only be considered if the drop is 30% or more.

In such a scenario, my portfolio would suffer more than the benchmark.

The next new feature is the analysis of the portfolio allocation in terms of sectors, regions, etc.

For me, it looks like I have generally overweighted financial services, but in reality, this is only the case at first glance. Due to the dividend drivers Hercules and Ares Capital, it appears larger than it actually is. Then, there is also this wonderful analysis of the types of companies:

I’ve mostly seen something like this on ExtraETF. And then, for me, the most exciting part – the dividends, as I follow a dividend strategy:

I would like to see a projection into the future here, like on ExtraETF, although on that platform, you can only see the next few months within the same calendar year. But this way, I can better assess whether I’m on the right track or not. What I don’t like about ExtraETF is the shaky connection to Scalable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s why I’m no longer a subscriber there.
Scalable takes away the market potential of tools like ExtraETF, getQuin, and DivvyDiary when they continue adding such features. For me, however, this is even more of a reason to stay with Scalable. These features could certainly become even smarter and support investors like me, who don’t want to use an expensive robo-advisor, even more when selecting investments.
Estateguru: First project partially collected + Exploratory Data Analysis
In fact, the first project has now been partially collected, with €262.72 of the €500 returned.

Otherwise, not much has changed since my last update. However, I decided to invest again. I withdrew 2/5 of my investment amount, and while the remaining amount is still significant, it no longer makes up too large a portion of my portfolio. I also put a stop to the reinvestment, at least as best as I could. Unfortunately, at Estateguru, you can’t specify that you want to invest only a certain amount, so that the interest is always available. Instead, you can only specify that you want to keep a certain amount invested, which isn’t ideal. For example, if I had invested €10,000 and wanted to reserve €100 each month, but then received a payment of €300, I would quickly end up investing more than €10,000, even though that’s not what I wanted. The support wasn’t particularly helpful in this case.
Estateguru does offer the option to download your portfolio data, which allows me to take a closer look at what actually went wrong:
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar() +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land")
As you can see here, I had fewer projects in Germany than in Estonia, for example, but most of the projects in Germany have defaulted. That’s quite alarming. It looks even worse when you look at the actual amounts.
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, y = `Initial Principal`, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land") +
ylab("Darlehensbetrag in Euro")
Is there a correlation between the interest rate and the “defaulted” status, meaning did I take on riskier loans in my “greed” that were characterized by higher interest rates? Let’s first visualize several variables:
data %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = `Initial Principal`, y= `Interest Rate`, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()

We definitely see the one outlier where I invested €2,500 at around 11%. It also seems that defaults are primarily associated with higher interest rates, except for the German projects, where I have defaults across the board. However, it doesn’t quite fit, because in some projects, you could invest over multiple stages:
data %>%
mutate(`Loan Code` = str_remove(`Loan Code`, "-.*")) %>%
group_by(`Loan Code`) %>%
mutate(principal_complete = sum(`Initial Principal`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`)) %>%
select(`Loan Code`, Status, Country, median_interest, principal_complete) %>%
arrange(`Loan Code`) %>%
unique() %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = principal_complete, y= median_interest, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()
Apparently, I was particularly bold in Germany, thinking that loans there were safer, and as a result, I repeatedly exceeded the limit of €500 per project that I had set for myself. Calculating a statistically significant difference would be the task. But let’s start in a different way first:
data %>%
filter(Status == "Repaid" | Status == "In Default") %>%
group_by(Status) %>%
summarize(mean_interest = mean(`Interest Rate`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`))
## # A tibble: 2 × 3
## Status mean_interest median_interest
## <chr> <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 In Default 10.7 10.5
## 2 Repaid 10.0 10
The Shapiro-Wilk test helps us check the normality of the data.
repaid <- filter(data, Status == "Repaid")
In fact, the first project has now been partially collected, with €262.72 of the €500 returned.
Estateguru: Project partially recovered.
Otherwise, not much has changed since my last update. However, I’ve decided to invest again. I withdrew 2/5 of my investment amount, and while the remaining amount is still substantial, it no longer makes up too large a portion of my portfolio. Additionally, I’ve put a stop to the reinvestment, at least as best as I could. Unfortunately, with Estateguru, you can’t specify that you only want to invest a certain amount so that the interest is always available. Instead, you can specify that you want to keep a certain amount invested, which isn’t ideal. For example, if I had invested €10,000 and wanted to reserve €100 every month, but then received a payment of €300, I would quickly end up investing more than €10,000, even though I didn’t want that. The support wasn’t very helpful in this regard.
Estateguru offers the option to download your portfolio data, which allows me to take a closer look at what actually went wrong:
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar() +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land")As you can clearly see here, I had fewer projects in Germany than in Estonia, for example, but most of the projects in Germany have defaulted. That's quite alarming. It looks even worse when you look at the actual amounts.
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, y = `Initial Principal`, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land") +
ylab("Darlehensbetrag in Euro")Is there a correlation between the interest rate and the "defaulted" status, meaning did I take on riskier loans in my "greed" that were characterized by higher interest rates? Let's first visualize several variables:
data %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = `Initial Principal`, y= `Interest Rate`, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()We definitely see the one outlier where I invested €2,500 at around 11%. It also appears that defaults are primarily associated with higher interest rates, except for the German projects, where I have defaults across the board. However, this doesn't quite fit, because in some projects, you could invest over multiple stages:
data %>%
mutate(`Loan Code` = str_remove(`Loan Code`, "-.*")) %>%
group_by(`Loan Code`) %>%
mutate(principal_complete = sum(`Initial Principal`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`)) %>%
select(`Loan Code`, Status, Country, median_interest, principal_complete) %>%
arrange(`Loan Code`) %>%
unique() %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = principal_complete, y= median_interest, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()Apparently, I was particularly bold in Germany, thinking that loans there were safer, and as a result, I repeatedly exceeded the €500 limit I had set for myself per project. Calculating a statistically significant difference would be the task. But let's start in a different way first:
data %>%
filter(Status == "Repaid" | Status == "In Default") %>%
group_by(Status) %>%
summarize(mean_interest = mean(`Interest Rate`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`))
## # A tibble: 2 × 3
## Status mean_interest median_interest
## <chr> <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 In Default 10.7 10.5
## 2 Repaid 10.0 10The Shapiro-Wilk test helps us check the normality of the data.
Interest Rate`in_default <- filter(data, Status == "In Default")
In fact, the first project has now been partially recovered, with €262.72 of the €500 returned.
Estateguru: Project partially recovered.
Otherwise, not much has changed since my last update. However, I’ve decided to invest again. I withdrew 2/5 of my investment, and while the remaining amount is still significant, it no longer makes up too large a portion of my portfolio. Additionally, I’ve put a stop to the reinvestment, at least as best as I could. Unfortunately, with Estateguru, you can’t specify that you only want to invest a certain amount, so that the interest is always available. Instead, you can only set a certain amount to be always invested, which isn’t ideal. For example, if I had invested €10,000 and wanted to reserve €100 every month, but then received a payment of €300, I would quickly end up investing more than €10,000, even though that’s not what I wanted. The support wasn’t very helpful in this case.
Estateguru offers the option to download your portfolio data, which allows me to take a closer look at what actually went wrong:
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar() +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land")As you can clearly see here, I had fewer projects in Germany than in Estonia, for example, but most of the projects in Germany have defaulted. That’s quite alarming. It looks even worse when you look at the actual amounts.
data %>%
group_by(Country, Status) %>%
ggplot(., aes(fill = Status, y = `Initial Principal`, x = as.factor(Country))) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
theme_minimal() +
xlab("Land") +
ylab("Darlehensbetrag in Euro")Is there a correlation between the interest rate and the "defaulted" status, meaning did I take on riskier loans in my "greed" that were characterized by higher interest rates? Let's first visualize several variables:
data %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = `Initial Principal`, y= `Interest Rate`, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()We definitely see the one outlier where I invested €2,500 at around 11%. It also seems that defaults are primarily associated with higher interest rates, except for the German projects, where I have defaults across the board. However, this doesn’t quite fit, because in some projects, you could invest over multiple stages:
data %>%
mutate(`Loan Code` = str_remove(`Loan Code`, "-.*")) %>%
group_by(`Loan Code`) %>%
mutate(principal_complete = sum(`Initial Principal`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`)) %>%
select(`Loan Code`, Status, Country, median_interest, principal_complete) %>%
arrange(`Loan Code`) %>%
unique() %>%
ggplot(., aes(x = principal_complete, y= median_interest, color = factor(Status))) +
geom_point() +
facet_grid(rows = vars(Country)) +
theme_minimal()Apparently, I was particularly bold in Germany, thinking that loans there were safer, and as a result, I repeatedly exceeded the €500 limit I had set for myself per project. Calculating a statistically significant difference would be the task. But let's start in a different way first:
data %>%
filter(Status == "Repaid" | Status == "In Default") %>%
group_by(Status) %>%
summarize(mean_interest = mean(`Interest Rate`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`))
## # A tibble: 2 × 3
## Status mean_interest median_interest
## <chr> <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 In Default 10.7 10.5
## 2 Repaid 10.0 10
The Shapiro-Wilk test helps us check the normality of the data.
Interest Rate`shapiro_test_repaid <- shapiro.test(repaid)
shapiro_test_in_default <- shapiro.test(in_default)
cat("P-value for Repaid group:", shapiro_test_repaid$p.value, "\n")
## P-value for Repaid group: 1.143358e-08
cat("P-value for In Default group:", shapiro_test_in_default$p.value, "\n")
## P-value for In Default group: 6.078673e-05
The p-values are significant (below 0.05), indicating that the data is not normally distributed. Therefore, the Mann-Whitney U test is used, a non-parametric test, to compare the interest rates of the two groups.wilcox_test <- wilcox.test(repaid, in_default, alternative = "two.sided")
cat("P-value for Mann-Whitney U test:", wilcox_test$p.value, "\n")## P-value for Mann-Whitney U test: 6.66547e-08
The p-value is significant, meaning it's below 0.05, indicating that there is a significant difference in interest rates between repaid and defaulted loans. This analysis was done across the entire portfolio. Now, how does this look by country?countries <- unique(data$Country)
# Function to analyze each country
analyze_country <- function(country) {
cat("Analyse für", country, ":\n")
# Filter data by country and status
data_df <- data %>% filter(Country == country) %>% filter(Status %in% c("Repaid", "In Default"))
# Check if there is enough data for both categories
if (nrow(data_df) > 0 & length(unique(data_df$Status)) > 1) {
repaid <- data_df %>% filter(Status == "Repaid") %>% select(`Interest Rate`) %>% unlist()
in_default <- data_df %>% filter(Status == "In Default") %>% select(`Interest Rate`) %>% unlist()
test <- wilcox.test(repaid, in_default, exact = FALSE)
cat("Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W =", test$statistic, ", p-value =", test$p.value, "\n\n")
} else {
cat("Nicht genug Daten für die Analyse.\n\n")
}
}
# Analyze each country
for (country in countries) {
analyze_country(country)
}## Analyse für Estonia :
## Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W = 77 , p-value = 0.02871484
##
## Analyse für Germany :
## Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W = 101 , p-value = 0.5058534
##
## Analyse für Lithuania :
## Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W = 224.5 , p-value = 3.126943e-06
##
## Analyse für Finland :
## Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W = 54 , p-value = 0.8649381
##
## Analyse für Spain :
## Nicht genug Daten für die Analyse.
##
## Analyse für Portugal :
## Nicht genug Daten für die Analyse.
##
## Analyse für Latvia :
## Mann-Whitney U Test-Ergebnis: W = 12 , p-value = 0.04383209
In fact, the difference in Germany is not significant. So, it turns out I wasn't as greedy as I thought after all 🙂
Now, what if I had only invested €50 in each loan instead of sometimes investing much more? How would I be doing today?data$fantasy = 50
data %>%
mutate(`Loan Code` = str_remove(`Loan Code`, "-.*")) %>%
group_by(`Loan Code`) %>%
mutate(principal_complete = sum(`Initial Principal`), median_interest = median(`Interest Rate`)) %>%
select(`Loan Code`, Status, Country, median_interest, principal_complete, fantasy) %>%
arrange(`Loan Code`) %>%
unique() %>%
group_by(Status) %>%
summarize(fifty_only = sum(fantasy), real_numbers = sum(principal_complete)) %>%
mutate(percentages_fifty = 100 * (fifty_only / sum(fifty_only)), percentages_real = 100 * (real_numbers / sum(real_numbers))) %>%
select(-fifty_only, -real_numbers)It's very clear here that my strategy of spending more on certain projects didn't work out well. It would have been better to invest more evenly and diversify my investments. That's exactly what I'm doing differently now.## # A tibble: 6 × 3
## Status percentages_fifty percentages_real
## <chr> <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 Fully Recovered 2.33 1.25
## 2 Funded 34.6 30.7
## 3 In Default 16.3 27.1
## 4 Late 1.66 3.91
## 5 Partially Recovered 0.332 0.899
## 6 Repaid 44.9 36.1
How Estateguru tries to reassure investors in German projects

First of all, it is commendable that Estateguru continuously provides updates to investors who have invested in German projects. However, the fact that the Chief Risk Officer is working around the clock likely violates laws in Estonia and is probably not healthy for the individual.
Estateguru: Nearly 40% of my portfolio has defaulted – An update
It’s time again to provide an update on my experiences with Estateguru. Since my last post, in which I reported that nearly 38% of my investment amount had defaulted, the situation has worsened. Currently, 39.69%, almost 40%, of my portfolio has defaulted. It should be noted that I am not currently investing in new projects, so the number of invested projects is decreasing due to completed projects, while the number of defaults has increased. In March, there were 63 defaulted loans, and now there are 84. Despite the fact that some projects have been successfully recovered, the number of defaulted loans remains high as additional projects have defaulted.

Estateguru recently announced that they have recovered a German project. This is a positive development, as it shows that Estateguru is actively working on recovering defaulted loans. However, it remains to be seen how this will impact my portfolio. And if they send an email about a recovered project, it also shows that this is still unusual, right?
In the past, I have already expressed my concerns regarding the long waiting times for loan recoveries. My oldest case is now 600 days old, and it seems there has still been no concrete progress. This is, of course, frustrating and contributes to the uncertainty. While it’s clear that it is currently difficult to recover a claim, my trust in the Collections department has significantly decreased. I am not currently investing new money in Estateguru and am instead withdrawing funds as loans are repaid. So far, I have reallocated almost a quarter of the money I invested there, but only the amount that has been repaid so far.
It’s important to emphasize that P2P investments always carry a certain level of risk. Although Estateguru is taking steps to minimize this risk, such as conducting due diligence and using real estate as collateral, there is no guarantee that loans will not default. My current strategy is to see whether they can recover the defaulted loans in Germany faster. If they succeed, I would consider reinvesting the repaid money there.
4% Rule or Dividend Strategy?
Preliminary note: This is not investment advice.
Just a reminder, the 4% rule is somewhat of a sacred law in the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). If you save one million euros and withdraw 4% each year, meaning 40,000 euros in the first year, it is assumed that you’ll never run out of money, even accounting for inflation. Conversely, the community also says that you should have saved 25 times what you need annually to live, if you want to live off it.
What bothers me about the rule: If the stock market goes down and I have to sell 4%, I’ll have less than what I need annually. Moreover, the 4% rule is based on a study by Bengen, which is based on a very specific portfolio and a period of 30 years. Few stock markets come close to 4%, and there is hardly any data for periods of over 50 years (see also Ben Felix’s video). If you want to retire at 40 and live until 95, only 2.2% would be a safe rule. According to Fisker’s book, early retirement only works if you live relatively frugally. But that’s another story. Some people rely on accumulating MSCI ETFs, which likely makes a lot of sense in your younger years. I tried my luck with robo-advisors for a while, but I’ve since moved on from that. Growney even issued me an incorrect tax certificate, and only after persistent follow-ups with the bank did I receive the correct one. I’ve also parted ways with my financial advisor. No matter where, a fee is always charged, even when a loss occurs. At this point, I’ve focused on the Scalable broker, where the monthly fee is easily offset by the interest from the savings account.
At first glance, the dividend strategy seemed more attractive to me instead of the 4% rule: ETFs with dividend aristocrats that have consistently paid or even increased their dividends over the last X years. But upon further consideration, this strategy also has drawbacks: Companies that pay a dividend essentially reduce their company value; companies like Google that don’t pay dividends can invest the untapped dividend into growth, which in turn boosts the stock price. Theoretically. In this case, the argument that dividends must be taxed is certainly valid, while investors in non-dividend stocks only need to pay taxes when they sell (note: with accumulating ETFs that contain dividend-paying companies, it’s a bit different, as there is a pre-emptive flat tax). Ben Felix explains this very well:
Additionally, dividends are not guaranteed, even with dividend aristocrats. The VanEck Morningstar Developed Markets Dividend Leaders currently offers a dividend yield of 4.87%. In other words, if you invest 100,000 euros, you’ll receive 4,870 euros per year, before taxes. And, of course, taxes must also be considered. After taxes, you would end up with 3,586 euros, depending on whether you belong to a church or not. So, if you wanted to receive an average of 2,000 euros in dividends per month (though they are not guaranteed), you would need to invest more than 660,000 euros to achieve this after taxes. To reach this amount, you’d have to reinvest the dividends you receive for many years, with strong discipline.
Now, let’s compare this with the 4% rule: With 1 million euros saved, you would receive 40,000 euros annually, which, after taxes, amounts to 29,450 euros a year, or 2,454 euros per month. With the fund mentioned above, you would need to save slightly less—821,355 euros would give you the same amount. Assuming you reach a 5% yield with various dividend stocks and funds, the sum would be even lower, though you would never need to touch your principal. This may initially sound better, but if you follow Ben Felix’s reasoning, you would not have benefited from the full growth of the stock market. In other words, the portfolio of an investor participating in the entire stock market would have grown faster because it would also include companies that do not pay dividends.
Estateguru: Nearly 38% of my investment amount has defaulted
As usual, here’s an update on my experiences with Estateguru. In March, 30% of my investment amount had defaulted, and now it’s nearly 38%. I’m not entirely sure how Estateguru calculates this, but I calculate it by dividing the total amount of defaulted loans by the current invested loan amount.

However, my figure should also be taken with some caution, as I am currently not investing any new money in Estateguru. This means that the invested amount is gradually decreasing, while the number of defaulted loans continues to rise. In March, there were 63 defaulted loans, but this has now increased to 83. But, and this is the first good news in a long time, some projects have now been recovered, so I am currently tracking 79 loans in recovery. However, the older defaulted loans have not been updated in a long time. My oldest case is now 542 days old. It has allegedly been scheduled for auction multiple times, but nothing has happened otherwise.

If I only look at the number of defaulted loans in relation to the currently active loans, I get a default rate of 27.5%. The reason the defaulted loan amount is higher is that there are loans where I had invested more. You can also see this in the following table, which I generated from Estateguru’s data (it’s great that you can download almost every report as a CSV file):

When I look at the current real estate market in Germany, I am somewhat concerned about how quickly the amounts invested in Germany can be recovered. However, the LTV (Loan to Value) ratio is very low for most projects, so even if only half of the value is recovered in auctions, I would still be in the green. But it’s likely that there will be enough foreclosure auctions in the coming months. Estateguru describes the process in great detail, also differentiating by country. Especially in Germany, it can take over a year before anything happens. Investors on the Estateguru platform must therefore always be prepared for the fact that they cannot access their money in the short term.
Long-term experiences with Estateguru: 30 percent of the investment amount has defaulted.

My last blog post about Estateguru was less than two months ago. In early February, 21.9% of the loans had defaulted, and now, at the end of March, the figure has risen to 29.87%. The number of defaulted loans has increased from 43 to 63. The proportion of repaid loans hasn’t risen as much, going from 78 to 91. So far, not a single one of the defaulted projects has been auctioned. It could take years before I get my money back. But let’s slow down a bit—what exactly is Estateguru?
Introduction
EstateGuru is a European peer-to-peer platform that specializes in real estate financing. Here, investors can invest in real estate projects and potentially achieve attractive returns. However, like any investment, there are risks involved with EstateGuru. Please note, this is not investment advice, but simply reflects my personal experience. What are the risks?
Credit Default Risk
Credit default risk is one of the main issues with any P2P platform, and EstateGuru is no exception. If a borrower fails to meet their obligations and the loan repayment does not happen, there is a risk that investors could lose their invested capital. EstateGuru mitigates this risk by conducting thorough due diligence and using real estate as collateral. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that a borrower will not default, and credit default risk remains present.
Loss of Collateral
The collateral used by EstateGuru when granting loans is real estate. In times of crisis or a significant drop in property values, the value of the collateral may decrease and may not be enough to cover investors’ claims. In such cases, investors could lose part or even all of their invested capital. Since I have yet to see anything happen with a single defaulted loan, I’m slowly coming to terms with the idea that I may not see some of my money again.
Platform Risk
As with any P2P platform, there is also the risk that the platform itself may experience financial difficulties or even go bankrupt. In such cases, investors may not be able to make new investments, and it is uncertain whether they will recover their outstanding claims. To minimize this risk, it is important to carefully assess the financial stability and business model of the platform. Although the collateral is supposed to exist independently of EstateGuru, how exactly do I claim it? And how do we, as investors, organize ourselves, especially when we don’t even know each other?
Liquidity Risk
Investors in P2P platforms like EstateGuru must be aware that their investments are typically tied up for the duration of the loan. Although EstateGuru offers a secondary market where investors can sell their investments early, there is no guarantee that they will find a buyer for their shares. Liquidity risk can mean that investors are unable to withdraw their funds as quickly as they would like. And that’s exactly what is happening to me right now. It’s not that I urgently need the money, but based on the current pace of recovery, it could take years before I get my money back.
Regulatory Risks
As EstateGuru operates in different countries, changes in legislation and regulatory frameworks can impact the platform and its investors. Possible regulatory changes could affect the platform’s operations, the tax treatment of investments, or the requirements for investors. In extreme cases, regulatory changes could lead EstateGuru to suspend its operations in certain countries. I have no idea what would happen to the loans in such a case.
Conclusion
EstateGuru offers investors an attractive opportunity to invest in real estate projects and benefit from higher returns. However, like any investment, there are risks that investors should be aware of and consider. These include credit default risk, loss of collateral, platform risk, liquidity risk, and regulatory risks.
Careful due diligence and a diversified portfolio that spans different projects and countries can help minimize these risks. Investors should also stay informed about the latest developments in the industry and closely monitor EstateGuru to adjust their investment decisions according to changing conditions.
Overall, EstateGuru remains an interesting option for investors who are willing to accept the associated risks and carefully manage their investments. The biggest problem might be one’s own greed, as where else can you find 10% or even more returns with such “security”? My mistake was thinking that the real estate market in Germany was safe, but about 80% of the outstanding sums are from German projects. In some cases, there was a bonus for investing a certain minimum amount, and since things felt too slow, I invested an unreasonably large sum in a project instead of the usual 50-100 euros.
Now, I no longer deposit money onto the EstateGuru platform each month; instead, I withdraw funds as loans are repaid, and I no longer reinvest this money automatically. I have already withdrawn 5% of my funds, 27% have defaulted, and are waiting for successful recovery. The interest and bonuses earned so far have not yet compensated for the effort involved.
Experiences with EstateGuru: Caution! Is Passive Income Really Possible?
________________________________________________________________________________________
Less than 3 months ago, I last wrote about my experiences with EstateGuru, so why am I writing again so soon? Because a lot has happened, and unfortunately, nothing positive. While there were 3 projects pending a few months ago, there are now already 43!

That’s quite a lot, and unfortunately, also a significant amount of money. Yes, (almost) everything is secured by a first-ranking entry in the land register, but as experience has shown so far, it can take an eternity for a project to be auctioned and for you to get your money back. To be precise, I don’t even know, because not a single project has been auctioned yet; all are stuck in an endless loop. This is actually quite concerning.

I have initially stopped all new investments until I see that money is actually being returned. At the moment, I wouldn’t recommend EstateGuru for this reason.
One Year of Not Buying Anything: October Report
October was basically a good month. I bought a T-shirt for my youngest, a party barricade tape, but unfortunately, I ended up buying a new iPhone. I was actually very happy with my switch from the Max Pro to the Mini, but the poor quality of the camera bothered me a lot. In September, I was in Padua and had a rare opportunity to photograph the anatomical theater. Unfortunately, it was very dark there, and the photos turned out terribly. Was it an absolutely necessary expense? No.