It didn’t take long to convince David Puchi and his partners at Baceline Investments that crowdfunding, or raising capital in small amounts from a large group of people, was a good way to reach new investors. Puchi is managing partner of Baceline, a Denver-based boutique private equity real estate firm that owns and manages necessity-based shopping centers in secondary U.S. markets.

The firm tested the waters in October when it listed one of its three investment funds on RealCrowd, one of several online crowdfunding platforms serving accredited real estate investors. To qualify as accredited under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, an investor must earn more than $200,000 annually or have a net worth exceeding $1 million.

RealCrowd and competing companies such as Fundrise, Realty Mogul and others enable accredited investors to comparison-shop real estate deals over the Internet and make equity or debt investments in those projects for as little as a few hundre