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Real Estate Sector Investing

mrc70
edited April 2013 in Fund Discussions
Hi,

There must have been numerous threads on the lines of this post in the past and bear with me for starting another.

I never held a REIT fund but planning to hold for some time. Last down turn was great time to initiate exposure but my inertia prevented me to that. REIT/Real Estate funds went up considerably since then. All the signs are pointing to slow recovery of RE. Do you think it is the right time to invest in RE? Would you mind giving your RE MF suggestions. Two Trow funds come to my mind when I think of RE investing but I want a fund that has good exposure to both REIT and non- REIT.

Thanks!

Comments

  • scott
    edited April 2013
    Baron Real Estate is an aggressive RE fund that offers exposure to REITs and what I suppose you can call "RE-related" (Lowes and the like) On the conservative side, Fidelity offers a fund (Fidelity Real Estate Income) that can invest both in REIT stocks and REIT preferreds/bonds/etc - nice income, less volatility over time. There are a number of others.

    I personally have steered towards individual names, as I am not particularly fond of retail REITs over the longer-term (I'd rather invest in industrial/warehouse, given the rise of online shopping - I mentioned Monmouth and Prologis the other day as examples, the former being a major landlord for Fedex.)

    Retail RE has run up a lot, but I just think if things turn South again it's going to go sour and if things turn up, I just think a lot of retail is going to have to evolve in order to try and keep up and compete with technology. Either way things go, I think retail is overbuilt in this country and the era of suburban strip malls that all look alike dotting the landscape is going to be gradually over - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but over the next 5-10 years if not sooner. Landlords have to evolve and you're seeing that with mall operator Westfield creating Westfield Labs in order to figure out ways to integrate tech with the retail experience (http://www.westfieldlabs.com/) The big mall operators will probably be okay - Simon, Westfield - but I don't like things like DDR. I do like Tanger and their high-end outlets.

    My largest individual RE holding (and one of my larger long-term holdings in general) remains WP Carey (WPC), which has run up a good deal but which I continue to increasingly like as a very long-term hold.

    However, I think most people should look at/would be fine with a fund.

    By non-REIT, did you mean Loews-style things, or agency mortgage co's (NLY, etc?)
  • Old_Skeet
    edited April 2013
    Hi mrc70,

    The real estate fund that I own is a hybrid type fund, Fidelity Real Estate Income Fund. It is one that has a broad based investment approach which includes stocks, bonds, preferreds and mortgage backed securities plus it kicks off a nice income stream. I have linked the Morningstar Report for its A shares although it is offered in many share classes. In addition the funds fact sheet is also linked below.

    http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/f?t=frinx&region=USA

    http://fiiscontent.fidelity.com/911083.PDF?pos=R

    Hope this helps.

    Skeeter

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