Thursday, March 19, 2009

Better to Invest in "Corp Mortgage" or Real Estate Investment Trusts?

In the world of investing there are two kinds of people, those who make money and see a profit and those that don't. Everyone wants to be a part of the first group, but not everyone knows how to do it.

If you are truly to do well in investing, you have to take a few lessons from the big dogs like those individuals that invest in "Corp Mortgage". After all, they got to where they are through years of hard work and investing. They must have done something right.

The first thing you need to know is where to invest your money. Many of those money moguls will tell you their fortunes were made in real estate.

Look at Donald Trump! His whole career was made on the right real estate moves at the right time. Another thing to consider is that real estate is an asset, instead of a more fluid commodity that could disappear overnight. What if the market had a tough time? Warren Buffet once said, "Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years." Can you say that about your other holdings? If you have real estate in your investment portfolio, you probably could, as real estate is something that will still have value.

For many people who are accustomed to the more traditional types of investments, they are not really sure where to start when it comes to investing in real estate. Do you have to buy a piece of property? A house? An apartment complex? The answer is no. You don’t have to do any of those things. Purchasing property outright, while still a nice investment, is a much more detailed investment than most people want to try. You want to be a part of a fund or have something as liquid as a stock, not be stuck in a situation where you are forced to deal with all the contracts and deeds of property as well as the maintenance of it.

This is why you should be looking at REITs. REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts. Essentially these are the mutual funds of real estate. When you purchase shares in REITs you are putting money into the pot for the real estate management group or real estate development group to build or purchase real estate with and then manage it and keep it operational.

How you profit from this system is when through the money the management group makes annually. From rent in residential properties to leases of business properties, 90 percent of the profits from REIT investments must go back to the shareholders in the form of dividends each year.

Beginning investing in REITs is simple; you just need to know where to look. A website like REITBuyer.com is a great place as they not only have all of the education and research you need to find out what REITs are out there and see how they are performing, but they also are a full service investing real estate broker so you can purchase your REITs through them as well.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"Corp Mortgage" or REITS for Diversity and Security in Troubled Economic Times?

REITs - Real Estate Investment Trusts to Hedge the Stock and Bond Markets

Have you taken a look at your investment portfolio lately? If you have, and it's filled with the normal stock and bond investments based on a "corp mortgage" possibly, you may have noticed that there has been a lot of damage to those investments in the past year or so. With the credit crunch and the market crash, most investments are half, or less, of what they should be.

This is when you should consider what you should be doing to hedge those other investments. This is where REITs come in.

REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts. These are funds where you fund a real estate management company. There are a variety of REITs out there. Some offer a way to back real estate developers who are taking on new ventures in construction. Others are meant to fund management of residential real estate such as apartment complexes, condominiums or even neighborhoods. Still others use the funds put into the REIT to operate commercial real estate interests.

I think Louis J. Glickman said it best when he said, "The best investment on earth is earth.” Real estate is always a wise investment. No matter what happens the land will always be there. Sure it may waiver in value from time to time, but in the long run, it will always be around, unlike businesses that can close their doors and take your investments down with them.

With this said, adding a REIT or two to your portfolio it would offer you a little more diversity and security in your investments.

You never know what the stock market will do. Just in the past few decades we have seen a number of sweeping changes in the market that completely broke some investors. Think of how many people you know who went bust during the Dot.com era.

Often the problem for them was they were too focused on the flavor of the month. They were putting everything they had into the new Dot.coms hoping to continue to ride the boom and make great profits. While they did see some great profits, those did not last forever. For those who kept putting everything they had into the dot.com market, they felt the agony of defeat in a major way when the market fell, many losing everything they had.

While there is nothing wrong with trying to jump in on an up and coming thing and make a great profit, it comes down to the old 'all your eggs in one basket' cliché. You don't want to have everything hedging on one investment. Instead have a diverse portfolio so if there is a drop in one area, you have other investments hedged against it.

In this case, even when there is a drop in the stock market and mutual funds, real estate usually will hold pretty strong through the down times, keeping you from feeling that all of your investments have been swept away.

When you're ready to take a step towards diversity, make sure to do it right. Going to a website like ReitBuyer.com will help you do just that. They will not only give you the research and information you need to buy wisely, but they are also real estate brokers for these investments and can help you seal the deal.