IS A REAL ESTATE FUND INVESTMENT RIGHT FOR YOU?

By Fuquan Bilal

Is investing in a real estate fund the right financial move for you? Who is it for? Who isn’t it for?

Real estate funds have been proving to be both attractive and profitable vehicles for many investors. For many sophisticated investors, family offices and even larger and broader funds and endowments, they are now one of the main staples in their portfolios. More recently they have become one of the most important and vital parts of a well diversified, sound and high performing financial plan.

Some people though, haven’t hit the gas pedal on these investments yet. Real estate funds may be a new concept. Or perhaps they just haven’t taken the time to dig in and really figure out the advantages and why others love them so much.

ALL ABOUT THE YIELD

I’ve met a lot of people over the years. Of those that do make alternative investments, the choice becomes really about the type of yield that gets them excited. The sophisticated, passive and strategic investors intelligently spread their risks. They may have some investments that ‘promise’ the chance of higher returns which are riskier. Others are more conservative and are happy with lower yields – and may choose a solid fund with a 7% to 9% return to help keep them in that target performance circle.

DIVERSIFICATION & STABILIZATION

Funds are frequently a stabilization and diversification play for strategic investors. They may have turnkey rentals, do some private lending and hold some notes. They know they can be very exposed with these investments. Funds give them much deeper and broader diversification, which in turn lower risk and keep cash flow consistent.

Let me explain. By investing in a fund, individuals may have 100, 500 or more assets collateralizing and protecting their investment. That’s versus the one or few assets that flippers, landlords or hard money lenders have. Would you rather put $150k or $500k into a single asset and cross your fingers as insurance that nothing goes wrong, or have a $5M or $25M or even larger pool of assets protecting that investment?

ARBITRAGE

The smartest investors know they aren’t going to be as successful as they could be by themselves. This not only applies to building a strong inhouse team, but looking at all options. Some are great at playing the arbitrage game. They may be great at raising capital at 6% returns. Then they just delegate that capital and invest in a fund for higher yields. The fund does all the hard work of sourcing and managing the assets. The arbitrage investor gets cash flow on a platter to pay out returns to their investors.

Is a fund investment a good fit for your portfolio? If the yields are right, the diversification is a good match, and passive investing is a priority, then this could be the piece of the puzzle you’ve been missing…

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Find out more about investing in secured debt and real estate, go to NNG Capital Fund.