Meaning and Advantage of Real Estate

What’s Real Estate?

Real estate is often defined or said to be the land alongside any permanent improvements attached to the land, whether natural or man-made—including water, trees, minerals, buildings, homes, fences, and bridges. Land may be a sort of real estate. It differs from personal property, which are things not permanently attached to the land, like vehicles, boats, jewelry, furniture, and farm equipment.

Vital Key Points

Real estate may be a class of “real property” that has land and anything permanently attached thereto, whether natural or man-made. There are five actual categories of the real estate: residential; commercial; industrial; raw land; and special use. You can invest in real estate directly by purchasing a home, rental property, or other property, or indirectly through a true real estate investment company, you trust (REIT).

Understanding the term real estate

People all the time use the terms land, real estate, and real property interchangeably, but there are some subtle distinctions. Land refers to the surface right down to the middle of the world and upward to the airspace above, including the trees, minerals, and water.

Real estate is that land, plus any permanent man-made additions, like houses and other buildings.

Real property—one of the 2 main classifications of property—is the interests, benefits, and rights inherent within the ownership of the real estate. Broadly speaking, real estate includes the physical surface of the land, whatever lies above and below it, or is permanently attached thereto, plus all the proper rights of ownership – including the right to possess, sell, lease, and to enjoy the land.

Real property should not be confused with personal property, which encompasses all property that does not fit the definition of real property. the first characteristic of private or personal property is that it’s movable. Examples include vehicles, boats, furniture, clothing, and smartphones.

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Physical Characteristics of real estate

The land has three physical characteristics that differentiate it from other assets within the economy:

1. Immobility. While some parts of the land are removable and therefore the topography is often altered, the geographic location of any parcel of land can never be changed.
2. Indestructibility. The land is durable and indestructible (permanent).
3. Uniqueness. No two parcels of land can be equivalent. although they could share similarities, every parcel differs geographically.

 Economic Characteristics of the Real estate

The land also has some distinct economic characteristics that influence its value as an investment:

• Scarcity. While the land isn’t considered rare, the entire supply is fixed.
• Improvements. Any additions or changes to the land or a building that affects the property’s value is named an improvement. However, improvements of a non-public nature (such as homes and fences) are mentioned as improvements on the land. so, therefore, improvements of a public nature (e.g., sidewalks and sewer systems) are often called improvements to the land.
• The permanence of investment. Once the land is improved, the entire capital and labor accumulated to build the advance represent a large fixed investment. even though a building is often razed, improvements like drainage, electricity, water and sewer systems tend to be permanent because they cannot be removed (or replaced) economically.
• Location or area preference. Location refers to people’s choices and tastes regarding a given area supported by factors like convenience, reputation, and history. Location is one of the foremost important economic characteristics of land (thus the old saying, “location, location, location!”).

Types or Forms of real estate

There are five main forms of real estate:

1. Residential real estate. Any property used for residential purposes. Examples include single-family homes, condos, cooperatives, duplexes, townhouses, and multifamily residences with fewer than five individual units.
2. Commercial real estate. Any property that’s used exclusively for business purposes, like apartment complexes, gas stations, grocery stores, hospitals, hotels, offices, parking facilities, restaurants, shopping centers, stores, and theaters.
3. Industrial real estate. Any property used in terms of manufacturing, production, distribution, storage, or research and development. Examples include factories, power plants, and warehouses.
4. Land. this also Includes undeveloped property, vacant land, and agricultural land (farms, orchards, ranches, and timberland).
5. Special purpose. Property is employed by the general public, like cemeteries, government buildings, libraries, parks, places of worship, and schools.

 How these real Estate Industry Works

Despite the magnitude and complexity of the real estate market, many of us tend to think the industry consists merely of brokers and salespeople. However, countless people earn a living through the real estate business, not only in sales but also in appraisals, property management, financing, construction, development, counseling, education, and a lot of other fields.

Many professionals and businesses—including accountants, architects, banks, title insurance companies, surveyors, and lawyers—also depend upon these viable real estate industries.

READ MORE: Benefits Of Reviving Nigeria’s ‘Dead Capital’ In The Real Estate Sector (Opens in a new browser tab)

• Single-family homes
• Homes with 2-4 units
• Multifamily buildings with five or more units, like apartment complexes1

Investors and analysts keep an in-depth eye on housing starts because the numbers can provide a general sense of economic direction. Moreover, the categories of recent housing starts can give clues about how the economy is developing. Example: Housing Starts

For example, if housing starts indicate fewer single-family and more multifamily starts, it could indicate an impending supply shortage for single-family homes—which could spring up home prices. the subsequent chart shows 20 years of housing starts, from Jan. 1, 2000, to Feb. 1, 2020.2

20 years of housing starts. Source: Federal Reserve System Bank of St. Louis. the way to Invest inland

There are several ways to dabble into investing in real estate. a number of the foremost common ways to dabble or get involved in investing directly include:

• Homeownership
• Rental properties
• House flipping.

If you purchase any physical property (e.g., rental properties, house flipping), you’ll make money in two different ways: Revenue from rent or leases, and appreciation of real estate’s value. Unlike other investments, real estate is dramatically and gradually being affected mostly by its location. Factors like employment rates, the local economy, crime rates, transportation facilities, school quality, municipal services, and property taxes can drive real estate prices up or down.

• ProsOffers steady income
• Offers capital appreciation
• Diversifies portfolio
• Can be bought with leverage
• ConsIs usually illiquid
• Influenced by highly local factors
• Requires big initial capital outlay
• May require active management and expertise.

You can invest in the real estate business indirectly, as well. one of the foremost popular ways to try and do so is through the real estate investment company (REIT)—a company that holds a portfolio of income-producing real estate assets. There are several broad forms of REITs, including equity, mortgage, and hybrid REITs. REITs are further classified and determined by how their shares are bought and sold:

• Publicly traded REITs
• Public non-traded REITs
• Private REITs.

The most popular way to invest in a REIT is to purchase shares that are publicly traded on an exchange. Since the shares trade like every other security traded on an exchange (think stocks), it makes REITs very liquid and transparent.

so much like many stocks, you earn income from REITs through dividend payments and appreciation of the shares. additionally, to individual REITs, you’ll also invest in the real estate mutual funds and also in real estate exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

• What We Like Liquidity
• Diversification
• Steady dividends
• Risk-adjusted returns
• What we do not like low growth/low capital appreciation
• Not tax-advantaged
• Subject to promote risk
• High fees
•  Mortgage-Backed Securities.

Another option for investing in the real estate business is via mortgage-backed securities (MBS). These received tons of bad press because of the role they played within the mortgage meltdown that triggered a worldwide financial crisis in 2007-08.3 However, MBS continues to be alive and traded.

The most accessible way for the common investor to buy into these products is via ETFs. more so like all investments, these actual products carry a degree of risk. However, they’ll also offer portfolio diversification. Investors must investigate the holdings to make sure the funds concentrate on investment-grade mortgage-backed securities, not the subprime variety that figured within the crisis.3

 MBS Examples

The two popular ETFs that give regular investors access to MBS include:

Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF (VMBS). This ETF tracks the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. MBS Float Adjusted Index, made from federal agency-backed MBS that have minimum pools of $250 million and minimum maturity of 1 year.4

iShares MBS ETF (MBB). This ETF focuses on fixed-rate mortgage securities and tracks the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. MBS Index. Its holdings include bonds issued or guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises like the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation so that they are AAA-rated.

Writing by James Chen and Edited by Prince Petik Limited

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