Also, I do invest pretty extensively in Lendingclub as well and find it's a good diversification from real estate, because the 2 are driven by separate cycles (employment cycle versus the real estate cycle).

Added important bonuses of tax benefits (with my wife's salary we really need them) potential earlier retirement, diversification, etc of course.  

I like the diversification over many submarkets, different types of property classes, and being able to see how each separate asset manager performs with the asset and what my returns are with them as a lead.

If you sell, you could leapfrog all that value into a tidy little portfolio of cash flow properties with lower taxes and much better diversification, albeit in areas that maybe aren't appreciating quite so fast.

Diversification is the best economy along with population growth.  

Let's put aside taxes, diversification goals, and transaction costs for a moment, and say you own 100 shares of XYZ corp. @ $10/share, total value $10K.    

The diversification of industries and the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered there is an easy Google search - I like to see at least 5 of the latter, as it gives an indication of what the leaders of these companies think of that city and it's business climate.

I still have my heart set on some rental properties eventually, but I can also see the  value in crowdfunding as a general diversification of our overall investment portfolio. 

It is with a company that offers co-ownership in a portfolio of 10 rental properties for instant diversification, 9-11% cash flow on rental income, and mid- to upper teens ROI on a 3-5 year holding period.

One downside is lack of diversification, depending on the size of this asset relative to your total investment portfolio.