Definition of "Mutual funds"

Investment companies investing in investment instruments including real estate. Mutual funds are popular to investors and represent equity in a professionally managed portfolio of securities. Major benefits of investing in real estate mutual funds are:

  1. Small minimum investment. An investor with limited funds can accomplish diversification by owning many securities in the portfolio.
  2. Diversification. Each fund share provides an investor an interest in many real estate companies.
  3. Automatic reinvestment. Most funds permit reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Funds usually do not assess a sales fee on automatic reinvestments.
  4. Automatic withdrawals. Many funds permit shareholders to withdraw funds on a periodic basis.
  5. Liquidity. An investor may redeem the shares owned.
  6. Switching. An investor may change in his investments as his objectives change.
    Mutual funds are of different types, according to structure, the fees charged, means of trading funds, and investment objectives. In open-end funds, investors buy from and sell their shares back to the fund itself. An example is Fidelity Real Estate. On the other hand, closed-end funds have a fixed number of shares outstanding, which trade among individuals in secondary markets like common stocks. All open and closed-end funds have management fees. A major point of closed-end funds is the size of discount or premium, which is the difference between their market prices and their net asset values (NAVs). Some funds sell at discount, which may make them more attractive. Funds charging sales fees are referred to as load funds. Load funds usually do not do better than no-load funds. Some analysts feel investors should buy only no-load or low-load funds. The prospectus of a real estate fund includes information as the fund's investment objectives, way of selecting securities, management and sales fees, and other costs.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Terms

Urbanized area in and around a major city. The metropolitan area may overlap county and state boundaries and may encompass a city, its suburbs, and the orbit of its social and economic ...

Same as term resale proceeds: Net amount received when property is sold. It equals the selling price less outstanding mortgage balance less all costs incurred in connection with the sale. ...

An individual's option to fairly utilize another's property. An example is privileges under an easement. For example, a person receives permission to use a lake on the private property of ...

The term “de jure” comes from the Latin “by law” or “by right” and is commonly used to describe something that exists according to the law or by right. ...

To define active participation, we have to look at owning residential rental real estate. Activities that handle rental real estate are considered passive activities and are affected by the ...

A lien on property such as for the nonpayment of real estate taxes or mechanic's lien for repairs to the home without the consent of the owner, created by operation of law. ...

One who has committed a tort. A tort is a civil wrong that occurs as a result of a breach of legal duty owed to someone, e.g., negligence. A tort does not arise from a breach of contract. ...

Designing a home with a Spanish cultural flavor. ...

Legal obligation to pay for a benefit received as if a contract has actually occurred. This may arise in a few cases so that an equitable situation occurs. An example is when a homeowner ...

Popular Real Estate Questions