The real estate crowdfunding platform La Première Brique is enjoying great success among investors. Accessible from 1€, it stands out for its regular fundraising rounds, a return above the market average and rigorous project monitoring. However, this popularity creates strong demand, often making it very difficult to access projects, especially when the fundraising amount is limited.
This imbalance between supply and demand can create a lot of frustration for investors, especially when the maximum ticket per investor for some small fundraising rounds remains high (up to 2000€ or even 5000€).
Faced with this situation, and if you are not part of group 1, i.e. the group of new investors, you have only one solution left: optimise your subscription as much as possible. It is thanks to this strategy that I have been able to invest on La Première Brique in more than 139 projects to date. To achieve this, there are many tips that I invite you to discover.
The basic tips
If you want to invest regularly on La Première Brique, it is essential that you adopt certain key reflexes.
Tip no. 1 – Be there on time
The fundraising round will not wait for you, especially on La Première Brique, where the best projects can be gone in less than 10 seconds. Set an alert on your mobile or computer a few minutes before the fundraising round starts so you have time to log in without stress.
Also get into the habit of opening the project page in advance and positioning yourself directly on the area where you will enter the amount of your subscription. This area is not always immediately accessible (especially on a computer). You will need to use the scroll bar to reach it.
This will save you a few precious microseconds. Even if you refresh the page with the F5 key, you will be already repositioned in the right place.
Tip no. 2 – Top up your wallet in advance
This may seem obvious to you, but believe me, it is a mistake that many investors, myself included, have already made! Do not top up your account 1 to 2 minutes before the fundraising round starts, because a problem can always occur. Plan ahead!
After clicking the “Credit” button, you have two options:
Bank transfer: Be careful, this method generally takes 24 to 48 hours on working days. Enough to miss a project if you do not plan ahead!
Bank card: This option allows you to fund your account more quickly. However, if you are a large investor, pay attention to your bank card limit, which could be restrictive. Consider asking your bank to increase this limit, or, if that is not possible, using a second bank card to fund your account. (Speaking from experience!)
Tip no. 3 – Invest on a computer
If you do not have a computer, you unfortunately start with a handicap. Having tested both, I can tell you that there is a real difference.
Of course, investing on La Première Brique with the mobile app is entirely possible and suitable. But when it comes to investing your cash as quickly as possible, the computer remains the best choice in my opinion.
Why? Because a computer allows for faster page refreshes, smoother data entry and more efficient subscription validation — points we will detail a little later in this article.
Tip no. 4 – The art of the F5 key for investing on La Première Brique
Let us now move on to an essential tip for maximising your chances: using the F5 key to refresh the project page and make the famous Invest button appear.
If you refresh the page only at the end of the countdown (00:00:00), you can already forget about your investment. Given the popularity of the platform, many projects will pass you by with this method. Why? Because by the time your request reaches La Première Brique’s server (which will already be heavily used by other investors) and comes back, you will already have lost 4 to 5 precious seconds… And that is far too long!
After testing many methods, I recommend pressing the F5 key 1 to 2 seconds before the end of the countdown. You can even try at 3 seconds if the project looks particularly sought-after (a real gem!). But be careful: if you refresh too early, the page will reload before the end of the countdown, and you will have to refresh again to make the button appear.
By finding the right timing, you will get ahead of many investors and be able to enter the first wave of subscriptions.
Tip no. 5 – Never enter your investment amount by hand
When subscribing, you will have to enter two pieces of information:
The amount of your investment (required).
The bonus code LFL to get 1% extra cashback (optional and depending on the projects).
Since the bonus code is not always present, let us focus on optimising the entry of your investment amount. Besides, on a project already offering an 11% return, it may be preferable to save time by forgetting the bonus code, rather than trying to move to 12% but missing the opportunity to subscribe.
If you manually enter your amount (10€, 150€, 1000€, etc.), you will inevitably lose time. I therefore recommend preparing this amount in advance by copying it into a word processing application with the CTRL+C keys on Windows (or the equivalent on Mac). That way, when the page appears, you can follow these steps:
Click on the amount field (right hand).
Press the CTRL+V keys to paste the information (left hand).
Click the “Invest” button (right hand).
With this sequence, your hands will stay in place after the page refreshes. If you are already used to keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste, you will not even need to look at your keyboard.
We have now reached the end of the first 5 tips for beginners, which many investors on La Première Brique already master. If you want to go even further and avoid the frustration of missing a quality project, do not stop here: discover the advanced tips waiting for you in the rest of this article!
Advanced tips for aiming for 100%
Tip no. 6 – Boost your computer
This tip can also apply to a smartphone. To put all the odds on your side, your computer must be entirely mobilised for your investment. It must be fully ready! Here is what you need to do:
Restart your PC if it has not been restarted for a long time.
Close all applications other than your main browser.
Keep only the La Première Brique tab open (close all the others).
Disable your browser plugins that could slow down the display of your page after pressing F5.
Tip no. 7 – Block the site’s images
This is a tip I have never used, but it seems very interesting to me. Some investors choose to block the display of images (and even webfonts for the most expert users) in their browser settings.
Why? Because what slows down the loading of a web page the most is often the images. By blocking them, you can gain a few precious tenths or hundredths of a second. You will easily find tutorials on Google to learn how to do it, whatever your browser: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.
Tip no. 8 – Change accounts
I have never used this tip, but it can be very useful for couples. If you are in group 3 on your personal account, it is possible to use your spouse’s account, which may be in group 2. This will allow you to gain precious seconds during the subscription.
Tip no. 9 – The Invest button disappearing
It has happened to me many times that I did not see the Invest button appear after refreshing the project page. This bug has affected many investors, and we reported it to the platform via support.
To work around this problem, which has already made me miss 2 or 3 projects, I now open two project windows. Here is how I proceed:
Option 1: I split my screen in two, with one window on the left and the other on the right.
Option 2: If I use a dual screen, I place one window on each screen.
With this method, on window no. 1, I refresh the page 2 seconds before the end of the countdown. On window no. 2, I refresh it between 1 and 0 seconds before the end of the countdown.
Thanks to this technique, even if the Invest button does not appear on one of the windows, it always appears on the other. I have therefore been able to subscribe several times without any problem.
Tip no. 10 – Watch out for waiting lists
On some days, there may be several interesting projects available at the same time. If you invest in the first project and end up on the waiting list, the amount of your investment is pre-reserved for that project. Unless you top up your wallet, you will not be able to position yourself on the second project.
Depending on your place on the waiting list, it may therefore be wise to cancel your initial investment to try your luck on another project. Many investors have already faced this dilemma.
Tip no. 11 – The ULTIMATE plugin for investing on La Première Brique
I have often talked to you in this article about the importance of optimising your actions to subscribe to a project quickly, especially by avoiding keyboard entry.
There is a very interesting solution: using a plugin in your browser, such as Autofill. Once installed, you can, before the fundraising round starts, pre-fill the fields (amount and possible bonus code) on the project page and save this configuration. That way, when you press F5, the fields fill in automatically without any action on your part.
The only thing to do once the page is displayed is to click the Invest button.
This tip is probably one of the most effective for ensuring a high success rate when subscribing on the La Première Brique platform.
Some rather original BONUS tips
Put a marker pen mark on your screen where the invest button is
Invest only when you are in group 2 (to avoid the frustration of group 3)
Avoid small fundraising rounds, which often lead to a huge amount of frustration
My opinion on La Première Brique
I have been an investor in real estate crowdfunding since 2017, with more than 139 projects subscribed to on the platform for a total invested of more than 230 000 €. Every week, I analyse new real estate crowdfunding projects, including those from La Première Brique, on my YouTube channel. Feel free to take a look to discover my opinion and detailed analyses.
What are the risks of investing on La Première Brique?
La Première Brique has approval as a Crowdfunding Service Provider (PSFP) from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). But like any investment, there are risks, including:
A risk of partial or total loss of the capital invested
A risk of illiquidity with investments over durations generally ranging between 6 and 24 months
Conclusion
There you go, I have shared these 11 essential tips and a few BONUS tips to help you invest effectively on La Première Brique. This list is probably incomplete, but it brings together everything I have learned after 3 years on the platform. If you know other tips, feel free to share them in the comments.
And as always, never give up!
Image source: Magnific