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

Calculator having various financial functions including present value, purchase price, property appreciation, lease costs, loan and mortgage amortization. ...

Internal rate of return ignoring taxes associated with the capital invested in property. Internal rate of return considers the amount and timing of the annual cash flow from the property ...

Real estate not subject to property tax such as that owned by nonprofit entities including charitable, governmental, religious institutions. ...

A lien that makes property security for the repayment of debt. Mortgages can finance the acquisition of real estate such as a home. A mortgage has certain benefits compared to other debt ...

Any property, tangible or otherwise, except real estate. For example, furniture or automobiles. ...

Details of a contract of sale including a financial statement, legal description, type of deed, place, date and time of closing of title. ...

Expenditure to make a specific security or real estate transaction. Real estate transaction costs include survey costs, mortgage points and origination fees, recording fees, state transfer ...

Most generally, the meaning of a blueprint defines a plan or a guide you follow in performing some future activity.  Blueprint in architecture The compilation of a blueprint in ...

Situation in which very few prospective buyers of real estate are rejected by lenders. This may be due to ample money supply, lower interest rates, and/or relaxed credit standards. See also ...

Popular Real Estate Questions