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

Financial intermediaries who invest in deeds of trust and mortgages, and hold them in their own portfolio. Large financial firm that uses depositors' money to lend to borrowers. ...

Bond whose interest is free of federal, state, or local tax in the state of the issuer. It is typically a municipal bond of estate or county agency. For example, a New York City resident ...

Legal order for a person to present at a deposition or trial documents in his possession, such as related to a real estate transaction. ...

Note having more than one maker, if one or more of the makers default on the note, all makers are sued jointly, rather than just one or all, to make restitution ...

All of the conditions of the purchase and sale agreement have been fulfilled. The escrow agent prepares a written summary of the funds received in escrow, and the moneys paid out. The agent ...

A column designed to support a concentrated load. A pier column is made out of steel, steel reinforced concrete or wood. A structure extending out into the water supported by numerous ...

Extent to which soil has cavities or pores, thereby allowing water to pass through. soil productivity;Ability of the soil to accomplish the desired objective such as its capacity for ...

Compared to; relative to; against. ...

While trying to determine your net income, you might come across the term revenue, sales, or gross income. So what does revenue mean? Through revenue, we understand the income generated ...

Popular Real Estate Questions