Archive for January, 2010

Fisher Investments Releases Latest Stock Market Outlook

WOODSIDE, Calif., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Fisher Investments announces the release of its latest Stock Market Outlook, a quarterly research report published by the Fisher Investments research team under the direction of CEO Ken Fisher and the firm’s portfolio management team. The Stock Market Outlook research report includes Fisher Investments’ latest market outlook, capital markets research and portfolio insights. The Stock Market Outlook provides individual investors an opportunity to gain valuable research and information on the current state of the global stock market.

To access the Stock Market Outlook, simply go to www.google.com and search for “Fisher Investments Stock Market Outlook” and then click on the link for the “Fisher Investments Research Report.”

The Fisher Investments Stock Market Outlook provides insight into the firm’s market and portfolio research with views on:

> Why the new bull market has additional upside potential ahead

> Which sectors and countries may rebound the most

> Why stocks are still undervalued by historical standards

> Signs that global economic recovery is already underway

> And much more investors can put to use in their own portfolios

Fisher Investments conducts internal research to support the portfolio management process for large institutional clients and thousands of private clients. This involves developing capital markets technologies to interpret market events in unique ways and studying the impact of economic, political and sentiment drivers on global stock markets. Some of these research findings can be found in Fisher Investments’ latest Stock Market Outlook.

To get your copy of the latest Stock Market Outlook with insights into Fisher Investments’ market and portfolio research, go to www.google.com and search for “Fisher Investments Stock Market Outlook” and then click on the link for the “Fisher Investments Research Report.” 

About Fisher Investments

Fisher Asset Management, LLC, doing business as Fisher Investments, is a portfolio management company founded in 1979 serving the needs of institutional and individual investors globally. Fisher Investments’ clients include large corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments, as well as thousands of high net worth individuals. Fisher Investments is registered as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its portfolio management team is headquartered in Woodside, CA. Ken Fisher, founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, is the author of six books including three bestsellers, many academic studies, and has written Forbes magazine’s “Portfolio Strategy” column since 1984. Visit Fisher Investments corporate website at http://www.fisherinvestments.com

About Fisher Investments Research

Fisher Investments has a 50+ person research department, including more than 25 research analysts. The research department’s structure optimally supports the Investment Policy Committee (IPC) as they make strategic portfolio management and implementation decisions. Research teams focus on generating economic, capital markets, and securities research and communicating their findings to the IPC on a daily basis and as changes arise. Fisher Investments Stock Market Outlook can be found at: http://www.fisherinvestments.com/more-about-fisher-investments/fisher-investments-stock-market-outlook

Fisher Investments Stock Market Outlook is copyrighted research material. Past forecasts and performance are not a guide to future forecasts or performance. The value of investments and the income from them will fluctuate with world stock markets and international currency exchange rates and involves the risk of loss.

SOURCE Fisher Investments

Disclaimer: This article reflects personal viewpoints of the author and is not a description of advisory services by its author’s employer or performance of its clients. Such viewpoints may change at any time without notice. Nothing herein constitutes investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or that any security, portfolio, transaction or strategy is suitable for any specific person. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Newest Real Estate Investment Trend – Virtual Wholesaling

If you have some experience investing in residential real estate, how much of your knowledge applies to investing in commercial real estate? Unfortunately, probably not very much. Your knowledge of financing terms and of some general real estate terms will be helpful. But beyond that, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Without getting too complex, let’s take a look at the major differences.

The value of residential real estate is usually determined when a buyer and seller agree upon a price based on comparing the recent sales prices of other nearby properties with similar characteristics. For instance, the selling price of a three bedroom two bath house with no upgrades will usually be within 1% to 2% of other similar three bedroom two bath houses in the neighborhood. This is called the sales comparison approach, and it’s the standard method that buyers and sellers use to determine value for single-family properties.

For commercial real estate, the standard method for determining value is to measure and compare cash flows. Of course, the physical characteristics of a commercial property are valued as assets on the owner’s business balance sheet. But the primary method of deciding on a purchase price for commercial property is to compare its cash flow with the cash flow of other investment opportunities.

This unit of measurement is called Net Operating Income, or NOI. It’s calculated by subtracting operating expenses from operating income. The rate of return that the investor wants to make on his money will determine the amount that he’s willing to pay for the cash flow.

For example, if an office building has a net operating income of $50,000 per year, and the investor needs to make a 10% return on his money, he would be willing to pay $500,000 for the property.

The investor would be comparing the purchase of the office building with other opportunities to make a 10% or higher return. If he could purchase a $60,000 per year cash flow for that same $500,000 he would make a 12% return on his investment.

In that case, of course, he would buy the apartment building instead of the office building because he’s comparing cash flows. Notice that he’s not concerned that one is an apartment building and one is an office building. His investment goal is to get the highest Return On Investment, or ROI for the $500,000 that he’s spending.

With residential real estate, the value lies in the physical assets of the building and the land that it sits on. Additional value is created through making improvements to the property and through appreciation, if and when that occurs. With commercial real estate, the value lies in its cash flows, which can be increased either by decreasing expenses or by increasing rents.

Investing in residential real estate is like being able to drive a car. Investing in commercial real estate is like being able to drive an 18 wheeler. They’re very different vehicles.

Is real estate still a good investment? Three things to think about

Real Estate is as much up in the air as it was a year ago, when the housing bubble burst. Along with the immediate panic of a year ago, there has been steadily growing worry about real estate in general as an investment. How dependable is it, and who do we believe in the press, in government, and in the media?

There’s no question that it’s a, “good time to buy” because prices are at an all time low and renting won’t give you any chance of profit. A first time home-buyer who can get out of a rental and into a home, will almost always profit by purchasing a home in a good area. Buying properties as investments, is another story.

#1 – Factor in your mortgage

There are a few decent cash-flow models out there, many of them are mentioned in a recent article by Zac Bissonnette, of Walletpop.com. The article points out that a very important part of doing calculations is including your projected financing over the course of your mortgage. It’s all fine and good to look at what you will be getting out of rent, and what you’ll be paying in taxes, but putting those numbers alongside the mortgage numbers is critical. If you go ‘old school’ and put 20% down on a 30-year fixed, you’re still going to do well if your property tracks with inflation.

#2 – Two paths diverged…

There are two very different way to go about investing- the do-it-yourself model and the easy-chair model. In the first case, you are investing in a property or properties yourself, and are fixing, managing, renting all on your own. It’s great to be able to do it your own way, and have control over your investment, but you are getting locked into something. In the other case, you are simply investing in a fund or a trust that is based on a number of properties. It’s a little less exciting, but it can be a much safer and more diversified option. Above all, know thyself; this decision has as much to do with your personality as your need for diversification and risk aversion, and taking the right path can make all the difference. For more on this choice, take a look at this recent article by Joanne Cleaver of the Journal Sentinel here.

#3 – Don’t do anything stupid

This is my favorite life rule. Please don’t do anything stupid, and if you think you’re about to do something stupid, ask a smart person. In real estate, there are a lot of people who you probably shouldn’t ask, in the same way you don’t ask a car salesman what the best make of car is. Finding an unbiased person or website can be tricky as everyone needs to make a living.

If you’re interested in investing in property (free) site, smartzip.com has a huge amount of useful information, data, market reports and research. They’re also partnered with foreclosure.com, so when you’re looking at specifics on a particular foreclosure home you’ve found, you have to option of going straight there.
If you’re thinking of going to REIT path, you can do research, but ultimately will want to talk to a personal investment professional about your opportunities- there are many ways to get into this side of real estate investing. Above all, know yourself, know your mortgage, and do your homework; if you’ve done this, yes, real estate is still a good investment for you.

Dan Perkins

To know more about <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.smartzip.com”> Investment Property Rating</a> and <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.smartzip.com/s/sz/property/search”>Real Estate Analytics</a> check out SmartZip website.

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Tips for Investing From Within an IRA

I don’t know a thing about you but I’ll bet you’re either investing from within an IRA, or considering investing from within an IRA.

How do I know?
Because most of us right now are having to provide investment guidance for our future retirement. This is pretty common since most companies and employers are no longer overseeing employee retirement accounts, and if they are it’s a safe bet that they are looking to discontinue the practice in the near future.

That leaves our retirement safety in our own hands.

Whether your experienced with investing from within an IRA or are looking for information on how it’s done you’ll find these tips useful.

First be very selective when choosing an IRA custodian. These are the individuals, brokerages and bankers that are administrators of IRA accounts. Like anything else not all custodians are equal.

The fact is some are light years ahead of others in there service, experience and know how. Don’t let just anyone oversee your account. You’ll want experience and comprehensive knowledge of IRA’s and the rules and regulations that govern them. Oddly there are actually few custodians that have this type of knowledge.

An example of this is that what you can invest in when investing from within an IRA is surprisingly broad. However most custodians allow only a narrow area of investment.

This is actually because most are only educated on the traditional IRA investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds and certificates of deposit(CDs). You’ll want to find a custodian that allows clients to invest in the full spectrum of possible investments options just as congress intended you be able to. The truth is that many things can be invested in using an IRA. One example is real estate.

In fact real estate is a Little known investment that makes massive use of the tax advantages of IRA’s. And as strange as it may sound most custodians themselves are in the dark as to the rules to investing in real estate. This is one of the main reasons that real estate is not often taken advantage of when investing from within an IRA.

With real estate it’s possible to double or triple the money invested in properties within 1 or 2 years when investing from within an IRA. The tax free and tax deferred advantages of IRA accounts can greatly speed large gains.

But the key to this secret is knowing which real estate is a good investment and which are bad investments, this type of expertise takes years of experience and often comes with some hard knocks.

This is why most custodians and administrators don’t want to deal with real estate. The territory is to foreign to them since most are skilled only in traditional IRA investment options such as stocks and bonds. This brings about the need for a self directed IRA account, with a self directed Roth or regular IRA account you are able to direct your custodian to invest in which real estate you want to invest in.

Some people may have knowledge in this area and are able to analyze properties, do market research and all of the other due diligence necessary to use real estate to build retirement wealth quickly. But most people are not experienced enough in this area,to adequately make use of real estate when investing from within an IRA.

But there’s a secret tactic that smart IRA account owners are using to great advantage.

That tactic is to enlist the expertise of real estate investors who are experienced in using real estate when investing from within an IRA and are willing to show IRA owners the ropes. These investing experts are also rare because just as with knowledgeable custodians, many professional real estate investors have never even heard of using IRA’s to invest in real estate or are unaware how to go about it.

You definitely don’t want the advice of your local Realtor here, only a few seasoned real estate investors can guide you in this area

A final peace of the puzzle that you don’t want to miss is the need for a self directed Roth or regular IRA account so that your custodian and your real estate consultant can work together as a team to grow your investment account.

Now that you’ve discovered these tips for investing from within an IRA you can look into taking advantage of these little known tips for large profits.

Will Your Residential Experience Transfer To Commercial Real Estate Investment?

If you have some experience investing in residential real estate, how much of your knowledge applies to investing in commercial real estate? Unfortunately, probably not very much. Your knowledge of financing terms and of some general real estate terms will be helpful. But beyond that, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Without getting too complex, let’s take a look at the major differences.

The value of residential real estate is usually determined when a buyer and seller agree upon a price based on comparing the recent sales prices of other nearby properties with similar characteristics. For instance, the selling price of a three bedroom two bath house with no upgrades will usually be within 1% to 2% of other similar three bedroom two bath houses in the neighborhood. This is called the sales comparison approach, and it’s the standard method that buyers and sellers use to determine value for single-family properties.

For commercial real estate, the standard method for determining value is to measure and compare cash flows. Of course, the physical characteristics of a commercial property are valued as assets on the owner’s business balance sheet. But the primary method of deciding on a purchase price for commercial property is to compare its cash flow with the cash flow of other investment opportunities.

This unit of measurement is called Net Operating Income, or NOI. It’s calculated by subtracting operating expenses from operating income. The rate of return that the investor wants to make on his money will determine the amount that he’s willing to pay for the cash flow.

For example, if an office building has a net operating income of $50,000 per year, and the investor needs to make a 10% return on his money, he would be willing to pay $500,000 for the property.

The investor would be comparing the purchase of the office building with other opportunities to make a 10% or higher return. If he could purchase a $60,000 per year cash flow for that same $500,000 he would make a 12% return on his investment.

In that case, of course, he would buy the apartment building instead of the office building because he’s comparing cash flows. Notice that he’s not concerned that one is an apartment building and one is an office building. His investment goal is to get the highest Return On Investment, or ROI for the $500,000 that he’s spending.

With residential real estate, the value lies in the physical assets of the building and the land that it sits on. Additional value is created through making improvements to the property and through appreciation, if and when that occurs. With commercial real estate, the value lies in its cash flows, which can be increased either by decreasing expenses or by increasing rents.

Investing in residential real estate is like being able to drive a car. Investing in commercial real estate is like being able to drive an 18 wheeler. They’re very different vehicles.