Sunday, May 17, 2009

Success in Real Estate Investment Trusts – Visualization + Education

When you are thinking of making an investment in real estate investment trusts or real estate mutual funds, there are two levels this investment decision will come from – the emotional and the intellectual.

These are two very different parts of the decision making process, and together can help you make wise decisions, if you use them properly.

Emotional

While you may think investment decisions are all based on money and math, there is much more going on in your mind when you decide whether or not to purchase a real estate investment trust or real estate mutual fund. The more you understand about the process and know how to use it, the more helpful it ca be to you for future investment decisions.

Have you ever heard of mind over matter? In most cases this phrase is used when someone has an illness that doctors say cannot be cured, but miraculously, though the power of positive thinking, they are healed. Ever wonder what that is all about? Well, it is a testament to the power the mind has over the things we do. While you may not initially think this has anything to do with your real estate investments, you need to think again.

In the same way that positive thinking can help someone be healed from an illness, it can also help to create a money-earning environment for you. Those who are ill make those illnesses go away by visualizing their body free of the ailment, and being healthy again. This is the same thing you can do for your financial health.

Picture what you want. Do you want to make money so that you can live with a better quality of life than you have now? Picture that happening. You must picture this in great detail.

You need to be able to clearly picture a day in your life when you are financially more comfortable. Feel the emotions that you would feel.

Next you need to visualize the steps that it will take to get you there. You will need to make wise investments, follow those investments and finally make wise decisions in managing those investments that will allow you to end up in the financial situation where you want to be.

Education

While the visualization of something great happening in your life is a wonderful way to start, just thinking about investing cannot make it happen. Instead you need to double up the visualization with some education.

Begin by joining up with a website like REITBuyer.com where you can easily study the investments you are considering. REITBuyer.com is the first and only online brokerage that specializes in REITs and real estate mutual funds.

On their site you will be able to find not only a way to buy, sell and manage your investments, but also all the latest news on the real estate industry as well as reports trends and other information that will give you a good look into what may be coming down the pike so you know what wise decisions to make to enjoy that future you were picturing.

This article was written by Earl E. Bird, spokes person for the REITbuyer.com, a site dedicated to educating Real Estate Investors on how to invest in Real Estate Mutual Funds to diversify their investing portfolio. Read more at http://stateapartments.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Enhance Your Corporate Profits with REITS

What are REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)?

If you pride yourself on being an up and coming investor, you should make sure you know all of the investing options that are available to you.

While most people know of trading things like stocks and bonds, they may not know of the deeper levels of those things, such as REITs. REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts. Essentially this is a company that purchases properties and then becomes a real estate management firm.

How you get involved in these investments is by giving them the funds to make those purchases and run them. Essentially, they will allow a certain number of investors to be a part of the trust (it is usually a limited number for each trust).

So where did REITs come from? Well the REIT was born in 1960 by congress. Before this time only those with major money were able to get into real estate investing. Everyone else had to play the regular stock market. So, they wanted to give smaller investors the chance to get in on the profit making market of real estate. With REITs instead of having to have the money to be able to purchase a whole property at once, an investor can get in to the market with just a percentage of the money buy buying one or more shares.

When choosing a REIT, it is important to realize that there are a variety of REIT styles. Usually a REIT sticks with one type of property. For example, there are commercial REITs that only deal with commercial real estate and ventures. They may purchase office space and rent it out to businesses. Another way to go is industrial, purchasing and maintaining industrial parks. There are also residential buildings that vary from apartment buildings to condominiums and even complete housing neighborhoods that are owned and operated by the REIT. If you know more about one kind of real estate than another, you may prefer to fund this style of REIT where you can invest in something you know about.

Understanding how REIT investments work is vital if you are considering going into this type of investment market. Here are some of the basics.

First, if a REIT makes money, its investors are going to make money. The way a REIT works is that as it makes taxable income, at least 90 percent of that must be paid directly to it's investors. That means as a shareholder, if the REIT is making any money, so are you!

When it comes to shareholders REITs run the gamut from small to massive, but even the small ones are not so small that they can't have any buying power. A REIT must have at least 100 shareholders.

When it comes to operations, REITs have a few major rules to follow. First, they are required to invest 75% or more of the money put into the trust in real estate ventures. Additionally, they have to be getting at least 75% of their income from monies made from the properties they own (i.e. through mortgage interest or rent)

If you are considering investing in REITs it is important to note that they are also a little different in tax structure. Since so much of the profit from a REIT is going to the shareholders, they are able to deduct that money from their taxable income. However, when you as in investor get your dividends you will be responsible for paying the capital gains taxes.

Before you invest, learn more. REITBuyer.com is not only a full service REIT broker, but also has research and educational information to help you get started and build your portfolio.

Some Security that Your Money Will Be Here Today and Not Gone Tomorrow

Real Estate Investments to See Real Profits

Many investors say they want two things in their investments – a return on their money and some security that their money will not be here today and gone tomorrow. When it comes to trading on the stock market or purchasing mutual funds, those are usually two things that cannot be promised. When you purchase stocks, you never know if the company is going to have a bad quarter, losing you a chunk of your investment or if they are going to fail altogether, taking your money with them.

The only place you can really be sure that you will not lose everything in a bad session is in real estate.

Even if the bottom falls out of the real estate market, real estate that has been purchased is an asset. So, while there may be losses in a major downturn, you won't lose everything. Often in this case if you were to hold on for a little while and be patient it will all bounce back and you'll be seeing dividends come in again like nothing ever happened.

There are two ways to invest in real estate. The first is to make a real estate purchase. For the most part this means having a lot of money in hand to be able to buy a piece of property or a building outright. For most people this is not a possibility as this means having tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in hand to invest.

There is another option however. Instead, why not be a part of a real estate investment trust or REIT. A REIT is where you are a shareholder in property ownership. This means you will purchase shares that go into a collective pot that is used to purchase and maintain properties. These properties could be anything from commercial buildings that are being leased out to residential buildings that are rented out.

The way a REIT works is that as the real estate management group makes a profit, that profit will be given to you as a dividend. Laws dictate that at least 90 percent of the profits from a REIT have to be returned to the shareholders, so barring a major downturn in the economy you know you will get a return on your investment year after year.

That other 10 percent of the profit from the REIT will go back into the management of the properties or possible improvement or expansions that will give you even more return on your investment dollar in the future.

Unlike regular real estate purchases, there is another benefit to REITs. If you ever needed to pull some of your money out it is as easy as selling a few shares instead of having to sell a property and go through all those hassles.