Monday, November 25, 2013

What Is It? Social Investing

By Frank Miller


Are you losing money in all kind of speculative instruments like share, bonds and forex and am wondering what asset class to invest in? Why not consider real estate investment with its traditionally higher yields as compared to leaving your money in your bank account. This article will highlight four common strategies that real estate investors use to make money in property investment.

Purchase run down property and spruce it up This method involves finding a run down property in a good area that you think has promise for resale and sprucing it up like some of the shows where people do an extreme makeover on the property. Bring along a good structural engineer or architect when you do look for such properties so as to ensure that the renovation works that you have to do will not be so extensive that it does not become worth your while to purchase the property. Since the property is may be rather run down, you need to redecorate and repair it and then you can resell this real estate for a much higher price. The key consideration when investing in this kind of real estate is to keep your renovation costs low but ensure that the basic utilities like the electricity , water and gas pipes are in good working condition. Thus this buy at undervalue and upgrade real investment strategy requires good investment property valuation skills and the ability to keep your costs low.

Just as traditional investors are willing to make a trade off between risk and return, social investors are willing to make a trade off between risk, return and social impact. If an enterprise is doing something that's improving the environment, for example, a social investor may be willing to give up some financial return or assume greater risk on that investment depending on his or her individual comfort level. In short, social investing can be defined as considering the social impact of an enterprise when making investment decisions. By this standard, a number of investment approaches fall under the umbrella of social investing: mission investing, responsible investing, double-bottom-line investing, triple-bottom-line investing, ethical investing, sustainable investing and green investing.

Within the universe of social investing, there are two broad categories: social screening and impact investing. In the social screening methodology, an investor comes up with a list of social standards that he or she wants his or her investments to meet. The investor eliminates any company that does not meet these standards and then invests in the "socially responsible" companies that do meet the standards in a way that meets the investors risk and return objectives. A number of socially responsible mutual funds have emerged that use such an approach. They adopt a social screening methodology, define a large basket of investments that adhere to those standards and then have their management company invest within that basket to meet the financial objectives of the mutual fund.

Unlike Fixed and Variable investments, Indexed investments are somewhat unique to the insurance and annuity marketplaces. An Indexed investment shares traits of both Fixed and Variable investments, but with one major difference - how interest is earned. With an Indexed investment the underlying funds are not directly invested in the stock market or an Index, nor are they directly invested in a bond, CD, or other fixed investment. They are however, secured by bonds or other conservative investments which provide a minimum guaranteed interest rate similar to a fixed investment. Generally, this minimum or fixed rate is lower than what is available in a purely fixed product. This is because Indexed products offer a higher maximum interest rate over Fixed investment products. The Indexed products determine the maximum interest earned using a formula based on three factors, all part of an option purchased by the insurance or investment company. They are the participation rate, the cap rate, and the reset period.

Remember that real estate investment is dependent on rental and the higher the proposed rental the better your monthly cash flow is. You could also purchase the property at a lower price and this would mean that your monthly cash flow would improve. Note that once your property is partly paid up, you can refinance your loan and extract out some money and purchase a second property and so on. Soon you would have multiple streams of income from the purchase of one real estate investment property. In conclusion, there are many ways to make money from real estate investment and what's missing is massive action on your part. Take massive action and start hunting for your ideal real estate investment property today and start generating substantial real estate investment property profits.




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