Inc Properties

Real Estate Investment Trusts – Learn From Results

2009-05-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

When many people begin an investment portfolio, they purchase items that sound good at the time and just leave them there. The hops is that when they come back in 5, 10 or 20 years, the investment they began will be a great nest egg that they can use for retirement, college tuitions or that life trip they had been planning. But this I not a wise way to work with your investments.

If you were to take a little time to watch your investments and learn from what is happening to them, you may be able to key yourself in on what is happening in the investment market and be able to make wise decisions that can help you make even more money to enjoy in the future.

Watch Your Portfolio.

If you want to know what is happening to your money and know how you may be able to make more of it, you need to know what is going on in your portfolio.

Once upon a time it was a world where the only way you could really keep an eye on what was happening with your investment portfolio was to wait for monthly or quarterly statements to come in, or call your broker and ask. These days there is a much easier way.

You can simply check an online portfolio to find out what is happening in real time. For example, if you were to open an account with REITBuyer.com you could then add your real estate investment trusts and real estate mutual funds to a portfolio online. When you want to see how things are going, you would just pull up the portfolio and be able to get real time results to monitor the progress of your account.

Know Your Investments

The next thing you need to do is understand the investments that you are involved in. whether it's the overall industry, the REITs and real estate mutual funds in your account or any other pertinent information relating to your portfolio, know all you can. This will give you a little more insight as you watch your portfolio.

Again, this is something that you can do on REITBuyer.com. REITBuyer.com is the first and only online brokerage that specializes in REITs and real estate mutual funds, which means you won't have to wade through investment information you don't need. It's all geared towards your industry.

Learn From Your Portfolio

Now is the time to combine those last two pieces. When there are changes to your portfolio, make a note of the changes. The more drastic they are, the more you should really take a note of them. In addition to noting the changes that are happening, you should also make sure to take a closer look at what is happening in the industry at the same time.

This type of study will let you know what you can expect in the future from your portfolio if there are similar industry changes. The more you know, and can predict actions in your portfolio by what is happening in the industry the more you will know when to buy or sell to make your investments see larger returns.

This article was written by Earl E. Bird, III, spokes person for the REITbuyer.com, a website designed to educate investors on REIT buying and investing in Real Estate Mutual Funds. Whether you are a savvy investment guru or a new investor looking for guidance, Reitbuyer.com has everything you need to be successful. Read more about REITs investing at http://apartmentsby.blogspot.com

Inc Properties International Real Estate Investmeents

2009-03-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

If you like to be on the top of your investment game, it may be time to look east, Far East. There are a number of new markets for investing coming online in Asia.

China has now joined the REIT market. REITs or Real Estate Investment Trusts are a way to allow you to be a shareholder in expansion and management of properties in China.

Consider the population of China. With over 1.3 Billion people living in China, there is always a need for homes and businesses. All those people need places to live, and they all need stores to get their essentials like groceries, clothes, etc, as well as services. That means there are plenty of residential and commercial real estate investments available in China.

If you add to this the fact that the Asian land prices had tumbled for a while then leveled out a few years ago, many believe the only way to go is up!

When many people think of investing in real estate, they think of purchasing a property outright and then owning it. That leads to a number of difficulties in this case. First, owning a property in China means you would have to be able to be there (at least periodically) to maintain it. That's a tall order if you live here in the US. Also, not all governments will allow foreigners to own properties, especially larger properties like apartments and businesses, so you may have a tough time getting through the legal hoops. And finally, it takes a lot of money to claim an ownership stake in a property.

This is why REITs have become so popular. REITs are a way in which you can put your money into an investment fund that will allow a real estate management group to purchase and manage properties in their area.

Since China has just come on the market for REITs more recently, there are a number of investment opportunities out there to choose from. This means you can really diversify. You can choose to purchase shares in REITs in each sector (commercial, industrial and residential) or focus on those that you know.

Michael Hart, head of research in Shanghai at Jones Lang LaSalle told the New York Times there is plenty of room for growth of international investments, "What we're seeing is just the first wave. Of the top 50 office buildings in Shanghai, only two or three are owned by foreign institutions."

As always it is wise to do your research before you begin. Here are a couple of things to consider

REITs in foreign countries are not the same as REITs in the United States. First, the rules of 90% of the profits being returned to investors do not hold up there. Instead, you need to research a REIT before you ever make a purchase.

Start by doing your research online. A website like REITBuyer.com is a great place to begin and once you find the properties that you want to buy into, you can make the purchase through them as they are also a full service investing real estate broker.

Enjoy the Benefits of REITS eadaches

2009-02-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

Estate Investing Without The Pressure of Ownership

So, you know how great of an investment real estate is, but you don’t want to have to own and maintain a number of pieces of property in order to keep your investment going. Instead you would love to be a part of a real estate investment that doesn't take any extra work on your part.

If you haven't heard of real estate investment trusts (REITs) before you may be about to find just what you are looking for. A Reit allows you to get all of the benefits of owning property, making money on rent and other profits, while not having to hold the title and do any of the work to keep the property up and operational.

Here's how it works.

Instead of having to own a piece of property, you will be purchasing a share in a real estate management group. There will be at least 100 shareholders that join into the purchase and their money will be pooled to be used for real estate development or real estate management.

Once there are purchases, at least 90 percent of the profits from the rent and other profits of the investment will be given back to the shareholders in the form of dividends. The other 10 percent can be put into maintenance or growing the REIT. This means you will almost always see a good return on real estate through REITs. All you need is a series of places that are rented and you will have regular money coming in.

This kind of profit making on property is essentially what you were thinking of doing on your own through real estate investing. If you were going to buy a piece of property, you would either want to sell or lease it out to make a profit. The only problem is that you would also be responsible for all the work of keeping the place in order and keeping things running. By moving into the REIT market you are able to get all of the benefits of this fund without having any of the headaches.

Now, it's important to note that you may not make a fortune in REIT investing, but it is a pretty steady way to see income, and sometimes you really can hit it just right and make a fortune. As a matter of fact some people, like Ivana Trump, count real estate as the only place to put their money. She was quoted as saying. "I made a tremendous amount of money on real estate. I'll take real estate rather than go to Wall Street and get 2.8 percent. Forget about it."

If you don’t know enough about REITs to make an intelligent decision on purchasing them, never fear there are great resources as close as your fingertip. Start by logging on to REITBuyer.com. Their site is full of resources and education to give you the grounding you need before purchasing a REIT. Once you're ready to buy, they can handle that for you as they are investing real estate brokers. Once you have added a few REITs to your portfolio they can help you keep track of them with tools and other resources to keep an eye on your investments and to see how they are stacking up.