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

Evaluation of a contemplated project or course of action, according to pre-establisher criteria to determine if the proposal meets the requirements of the property owner. An analysis is ...

In insurance, an estimable risk for the purpose of calculating an adequate and reasonable premium providing sufficient resources should the company need to pay a claim while maintaining ...

Abbreviation for the Latin term et alii meaning "and others". ...

Early American architecture modeled after the English Georgian architecture having two or three stories with a rectangular design and ample ornamentation often including a widow's walk. ...

(1) Written statement by a responsible individual or entity of the correctness and reliability of something. (2) Written permission to do something, such as receiving a real estate ...

The allocation method estimates the value of the property’s land by gathering information from comparable properties. The allocation method of estimating site value is ideal, however, ...

In real estate, the basis to set an adjustable rate mortgage, such as a 6-month certificate of deposit (CD) rate, cost of funds index, or prime rate. A statistical measure stated as ...

Agreement by a lender to lend money to a borrower. A loan commitment typically includes the amount of money to be lent, the interest rate, and the period of the loan. ...

People often use the term in their everyday discourse, yet many wonder what the meaning of common law genuinely implies. Common law refers to a system of jurisprudence based on court ...

Popular Real Estate Questions