Friday, February 27, 2009

Are You Worried About the State of the Economy? Invest in REITs

Some REIT Markets are Stronger than Others

If you are worried about the state of the economy and what you should do with your investing dollars, you may be able to take a little bit of solace in knowing that things are not always as bad as they seem. Perhaps you just need to look at them differently.

Let's look at real estate investing. Many people like the idea of REITs or real estate investment trusts because they know real estate is always a sound investment. After all, the worst-case scenario is a piece of property loses a little value, but it will never become worthless and always has some trading clout.

But with the housing market struggling in the US over the past year, you may be wondering just how smart it is to fund real estate investment ventures.

The first thing you need to keep in mind is that real estate investment is not only available in the US. There are REIT funds that are putting money into real estate all over the world. In many developing countries real estate developers have so many projects they don't know what to do as countries develop and need new infrastructure. Getting in on one of these investing options could reap large rewards.

There are a wide variety of options available in these countries where you can invest your money. You could look into commercial real estate funds that will help businesses grow in these budding countries. Another option is to have put your money into residential real estate fund programs in the cities of these developing countries. When a country is developing and industrializing, people often move to the city to take part in the growth. This means those residential real estate investments stand to make a great profit.

But how do you know what markets are about to make that boom or are just starting to hit their stride so you know where to invest? This is going to take a little research on your part. If you are a pro in the real estate investing arena, you can do this yourself. If you're not, you may prefer to get a helping hand from some pros.

A website like REITBuyer.com is a great place to start. Not only are they real estate brokers that can help you purchase the REIT funds you want, but they are also a great place to get all the information you need to know which REITs are the best to buy.

By going through REITBuyer.com you will be able to get a better look at the real estate investment options in other countries. You will also be able to find reports and information about the expectations of real estate development in these areas.

Next you will get a peek into the real estate management plans that are in place for those countries. You will see the kinds of real estate listings they want to create or those that they already own and want to manage.

Once you have started deciding which are best for you, you can even have REITbuyer.com do the rest of the work and add the investments that you like to your portfolio. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Add REITs to Your Investment Portfolio

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, 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 Doc.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 doc.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.