Why Real Estate and REFM

The Value of Real Estate

• The use of the bank's and other people’s money. Real estate is the most accessible of the investment types, because we do not need to personally have a lot of cash or assets to get started.
  • Lenders are often more willing to finance a sound real estate investment than even a great business idea because real estate investments always involve collateral of indisputable value: land. With the aid of leverage, we can typically purchase something 5 times the amount of cash we have to invest.
  • Similarly, investors like real estate because it is tangible, easy to understand and offers attractive tax benefits. The ease of conveying the potential of the property allows us to raise equity capital with relatively less selling and storytelling than for a non-real estate investment opportunity.
• Protection from inflation. Intelligently written real estate leases include rent escalations tied to an inflation Index, which protect the value of our cash flows in an inflationary environment. While the spending power from our savings account erodes, real estate cash flows offer consistent real rates of return.
• Shielding from income taxes. Depending on the investment and the applicable accounting standards, we can often decrease our taxable income by significant sums. For instance, the US allows for shielding of income through the writing off of interest cost, through the depreciation of building structure and capital improvements, and through the amortization of loan points.