Easyonlinepaydayloan

REIT valuations

fkheng said: "When performing fundamental analysis on REITs, how different is the valuation approach? Also, are there any softwares available out there? And am I right in saying that even with the use of softwares, I still have to plough through the Financial Statements to feed the data into the software, even for normal stocks?"

AlfredSokol said: "The main thing you want to look for with REITS is the funds from operations (FFO), so you can make sure that the company can cover dividends. If the FFO grow, the company can grow out dividends every year. Here's a [url=http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Investing/Realestate/P73385.asp]REIT primer[/url] which outlines some of the major concepts. I'm a big fan of REITS. In the last 5 years REITS have an annualized return of 22%."

Klytie's Developments said: "Often times they are regulated and therefore limited in the scope of projects which they can undertake. Further, they charge fees similar to what you pay for a mutual fund which reduces your initial capital investment or reduces your annualized return if taken off the back end. While 22% is a very solid return you do have to take several factors into consideration and explore the other available alternatives in Real Estate investing. I run a private Real Estate Investment fund that participates in profit sharing (We don't make money unless we perform) and our investors average annualized return is 27.7% after profit sharing. Granted the fund is not regulated, but this opens doors to many real estate markets that REIT's can't touch and assists in alloacting risk more efficiently. REIT's are a great alternative investment, however, there are some better alternatives out there."