What Are Trust Deed Investments

By Eugenia Dickerson


There are various forms of investments and among them is a trust deed investment. Basically, this is a form of loan investment where the securing item is a real estate. Its maturity rate is normally below five years, thus meaning that it is a short term loan. As a matter of fact, most of the loans take less than two years to mature. Trust deed investments mainly came up due to the limited financing options that real estate investors have.

In most cases, the borrowers are professional real estate investors who have plans of making large returns. They may also be planning to make favorable deals in the near future. However, they need to be willing to quickly pay for a simple and quick capital source.

A trust deed investment is different from other loans, savings and bank deposits. This is because the latter are normally secured by insurance from federal agencies. The principal in this case is therefore not insured. The loan given has to be repaid back within a given period of time which is predetermined before the actual issuance.

When you invest in a trust deed investment, you will get more returns as compared to the other forms of investments. You therefore need to ensure that it is well structured in order for it to be successful. If you are an investor, there is a possibility of making single-digit returns annually. The margin of safety furthermore makes this kind of investment more secure.

The margin of safety is created by the difference between the property and loan value. When the loan is not paid in the agreed time, the lender can foreclose the property and sell it. The cash earned from the sale is what is used to repay the given amount that had been issued as loan together with the interest accrued from it.

Sometimes the value of the property can be higher than the original amount invested, which is the issued loan. This type of loan is termed as being conservative. It is hard to make losses when having such loans even if the loan is not repaid by the borrower. A loan-to-value of more than 65% can be achieved if the investment is structured well.

There are some facts that one needs to understand about this form of investment before going into it. First of all, the investments are not liquid. This is to mean that one cannot make a quick decision to ask back for the invested money and easily convert it into ready cash as with shares in blue chip companies and municipal bonds. Therefore, the investor has to be willing to stay with the investment until when the loan is repaid back with the borrower.

If planning to invest in trust deed investments, there are four options available to you. The fist one is that you can go and personally secure an individual loan and then lend it to real estate investors. You can as well buy loans from brokers that have been backed by real estates. Some people also prefer to invest in funds which will invest in trust deeds in the long run. The last option is to look for people who are investing directly in trust deeds in form of a group and then join them.




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