Based on your results from our Real Estate Investor Quiz, we believe Some Funds and Most Real Estate Investment Trusts may be the right investment options for you.
Passive investing in real estate is a great way to reap the benefits of owning property without all of the headaches that actively managing your properties can entail.
Funds
A real estate fund is a type of passive investing that involves pooling different projects and raising funds from investors. An easy way to see a fund is as separate investments into different syndications. Because not every project will perform the same, funds are generally diversified to offset risk.
One advantage of investing in a real estate fund over directly buying a rental property is that funds generally offer more diversification. Unlike a single property, funds can purchase a variety of asset classes over a wide geographic area. Funds are also not tied to a single investing strategy. Learn more about diversification in this video, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content.
Pros and Cons of Funds
Funds are a type of passive investing that don’t require any work on the part of the investor. However, there are some tradeoffs to this type of investment.
Pros of Funds:
- This is a type of passive investing and doesn’t require the investor to do any of the work on the project.
- Because there are multiple projects, funds offer diversification.
- Since so many investors are contributing funds, General Partners are generally able to get better terms than an individual investor would get.
Cons of Funds:
- You are committing your money over a period of time, and you typically don’t get it back until the project is complete.
- You usually need to be an accredited investor: either making $200K alone a year or a married couple making $300K; or, you have more than $1MM to invest, not including your primary residence.
Real Estate Investment Trust?
A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a company that owns and typically operates income-producing real estate or related assets. REITs allow individuals to invest in large-scale, income-producing real estate without having to purchase the real estate themselves. Instead, investors receive a share of the income produced by the property.
REITs are the most common type of passive real estate investing. There are over 1000 REITs to choose from, and there’s one for every type of asset class: self-storage, office space, apartment buildings, and more. Get an in-depth look at different kinds of REITs in this Investopedia article.
Financial services firm Morningstar found that optimal investment portfolios allocate between 4%-13% in REITs. Read more about their findings here.
REIT Pros and Cons
Pros of REITs:
- Some powerful features of REITs are their liquidity, which allow investors to sell on short notice, and that investors usually don’t need to be accredited, just able to put cash into the trust.
- Over the past 20 years, the stock market, on average, has annually increased 8% per year. Meanwhile, REITs have gone up 13%.
Cons of REITs:
- Because REITs don’t require investors to be accredited, they tend to make less money compared to other passive investing options.
- Dividends of REITs are taxed as regular income.
What’s Next?
Learn more about funds in this Ironton Capital webinar.
Want to see how to unlock your home’s equity so you can invest in funds or REITs? Our Property Llama software will allow you to run different scenarios to figure out the best way to build your portfolio. Sign up for your free account to get started.