There seems a mad rush for investing in real estate (and this gets even
bigger when the mortgage interest rates are falling). However, not everyone has
the time, money and expertise to be able to profitably invest in real estate. So
what does one do? Is there any other option?
Yes, there is another way of investing in real estate and that is through Trust. Trust is an organisation that invests in real estate as a full fledged business. By investing in a Trust, you can become part of the party and enjoy profits (of course, the assumption here is that the Trust is good and professionally managed).
Investing in Trust is very easy too. You can just buy Trust shares which trade on all major exchanges. There are certain laws governing the Trusts that help them avoiding the tax at corporate levels e.g. it is mandated that Trust’s portfolio has 75 percent of investment in real estate. Moreover, 75% of the income of Trust must be from rents or mortgage interest. There are various types of Trusts. Some Trusts own properties themselves and hence feed on the rental income from those properties. Some others indulge in providing only mortgage loans or go for mortgage backed securities. Then there are Trusts which do both i.e. rental focussed investments and mortgage based investments.
There are a number of Trusts operating in the market and a lot of these Trusts are doing good business. By investing in Trust you are basically investing in real estate without actually buying a property yourself. This is one easy way of investing in real estate (and much safer too). You must surely evaluate this option for your real estate investments.
