Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Trust Deeds Create Double Digit Returns for Investors

Next time you drive down the street, look around. You’ve probably driven past all the commercial office buildings, all the condominiums, houses, and shopping centers without giving them a second glance. You’ve also ventured inside those shopping centers, perhaps sipped a cup of Starbucks coffee or bought a hammer at The Home Depot, without giving a thought to the buildings that house the coffee or the hammer. You were probably more concerned about savoring your Starbuck’s beverage than you were about the owners of the roof over your head.

The way you’re going to earn double-digit interest on your investment is to increase your awareness of the real estate around you. You’re going to realize that there’s life beyond Starbucks, that someone built the shopping center in which Starbucks resides in order for you to enjoy your morning mocha. It is the builder of that shopping center who can help you earn high interest.

Developers of commercial and residential real estate-shopping centers, condominium complexes, office buildings, and homes-need money to build. Although they can seek this money from banks, often, they turn to mortgage companies (also known as trust deed investment companies) for the money to build their properties. But how do trust deed investment companies find the money to lend these real estate developers? They get it from investors. And it is those investors who are earning double-digit interest.

Trust deed investment companies serve as middlemen between borrowers (real estate developers) and investors. Good trust deed investment companies are as discriminating as a meat lover searching for the choicest cut of beef. They scrutinize every loan proposal and only loan money to borrowers who pose the least risk. However, say something does happen to the borrower. Say a rabid poodle attacks him and he is unable to make the loan payments. The trust deed investment company never could have foreseen such an unexpected event. What happens in situations like this? The beauty of this type of investing is that the trust deed investment company and the investor always have an “out” in the rare event that the borrower fails to make payments. That “out” is the real estate project itself. The trust deed investment company can foreclose on the project-sell the shopping center, the office complex, the condominiums, or the homes-and return the money to the investors.

This is what makes trust-deed investments such a great part of your portfolio. They are inherently much safer than business investing, or currency exchanging – there is an inbuilt safety mechanism in them. They are not without their pitfalls – but clever investors will be the ones to enjoy the safer returns that this sort of investment brings. You can be one of those clever investors – look beyond term deposits with the bank as a safe investment option … expand your mind, man! Investing is not necessarily either fractions of percentages with your bank or the radical, manic depressive highs and lows of stock markets investing. Trust deeds are that middle ground.

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