The continued train wreck in the stock markets underscores the need for alternatives.  Money is hard to make and easy to lose. Years of investment gains can vanish in an afternoon.

To counter the conventional meltdown many now focus on “Alternative” or “Non-Correlated” investments.  Simply put these are an alternative to stock market investments and their performance is not correlated with the performance of the stock market, (Aren’t you glad someone finally ...

Buy when prices are low.  Simple concept. Owning real estate investment products in the richest economy in the world is smart.  Buying when the prices are low is even smarter. Finding high quality opportunities at low prices is the smartest move of all.

This August the stock  markets went haywire and investors large and small retreated. The panic spilled over to other investment classes which extended further the favorable market for real estate securities. That a cross wise ...

Hard Assets Perspective in Troubled Times

The case for real estate securities is simple. Own hard assets that pay you to own them.  Your capital owns hard, tangible, understandable property that produces income. You get the income.

Troubled times provide the opportunity to move up the quality scale. Buying a higher quality property for the same amount ...

The latest of the market crashes exposes again the risk of entrusting retirement assets to one venue. Conventional stock and bond portfolios have failed to protect most investors saving for retirement. Many “sophisticated” strategies have failed even more dramatically.

The traditional, time tested, strategy of institutional grade property investment can provide the income and capital preservation needed for retirement. Used as an “alternative” to the conventional bond/stock world that may retain value when other assets crash.

Non Traded Real Estate Investment Trust

A trust that hold real estate or real estate mortgages which is required to distribute 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. It is similar to a Wall Street traded REIT except that it is not traded and its value is the Net Asset Value (NAV) of its holding as opposed to the market value of its traded shares.

Real Estate Fund

An investment structure, (usually organized as an LLC) that holds real estate, real estate mortgages or claims upon real estate ...

Those over-leveraged commercial loans contained in the so called “securitized offerings” are defaulting at a higher rate according to the 12-1-2010 Wall Street Journal. This market clearing is good news and presents profit opportunities.

Many solid properties have been laboring under unsustainable debt loads and the sooner the default the better. The losses resulting from the credit binge are real and will not disappear. When the losses are recognized, the property can then return to the market with ...

• The 1031 Exchange fueled Tenant in Common/Delaware Statutory Trust sector has regained credibility, despite ongoing issues with some old offerings.
  
• Non Traded Real Estate Investment Trusts are seeing steady returns and continue to find attractively priced acquisitions.
  
• CMBS and other Debt Funds report 10% plus investor distributions, although the 15-30% returns of the 2009-2010 market appear gone for ...

On Wednesday November 3, 2010 the Fed announced the long awaited activation of the Fed printing press. Couched as “quantitative easing” it will insert $75 billion a month * into the monetary system by buying Treasuries.

No new hard assets or wealth will be created... just more paper monetary claims. Treasuries are, after all, just government debt. The stated goal is to keep interest rates down by buying Treasuries in the hope that this will stimulate the economy. A more realistic ...

Treasuries are the latest financial canary to suggest the bond party may be endangered.  The yields are rising which means the value of existing treasuries are dropping. To simplify- it now costs less to buy a specific dollar amount of income. That means what you already own is worth less. Adding insult to injury is that investments based upon similar debt products are similarly affected.

You can pay more, get less..... and face unexpected downside ...