If you are looking to be a little friendlier to the globe in your personal life, you may also think about going this route in your investing and business life. Sure, turning off the light switches at home when you can and trying to recycle as much of the materials you use in your home area great ways to make a difference, but what about the money you give to other companies? Is it speaking for you?
When you are investing in REITs and real estate mutual funds, how often do you really think about where the money is going in the long run? You think about your investments in a manner of what will make you profit, right? But why not think about if the companies you are giving your money to are working to be as green as you are?
While you may think this is a great idea, how do you know if a REIT or real estate mutual fund is really green? anyone can say they are environmentally friendly, but can they prove it? One thing you may want to look for is those REITs and real estate mutual funds whose buildings have a good green rating.
What you need to be looking for is a LEED or Energy Star rating. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Both of these rating systems take a look at a lot of aspects of construction projects. From being energy efficient to conserving water and building with sustainable resources, there are a number of ways real estate entities can be ranked in these rating systems. Obviously the higher the rating, the better that REIT or real estate mutual fund holding is at being environmentally friendly.
Finding out if a company is green and has these ratings should not be too hard. Many companies are very proud of these ratings and will brag of them on their literature. The reason for this is that they understand that there are people just like you who are out there looking for environmentally conscious investments where they feel comfortable putting their money.
At the same time, you should do your own research to make sure the facts back up the claims.
One way to do this is to log onto a website like REITBuyer.com. REITBuyer.com is the first and only online brokerage that specializes in REITs and real estate mutual funds. When you log onto REITBuyer.com you will be able to do all of the research you need on their site, without wading through mountains of other investments. Since they only specialize in the real estate sector, all the information they have relates to your sector.
Once you have found out that the company you are interested in does in fact have the ratings you had hoped, it's time to buy. With REITBuyer.com you can also do this in the same place since they are a full service brokerage, and you can monitor your investment here as well.
This article was written by Earl E. Bird, III, spokes person for the REIT Buyer.com, a full service online information resource dedicated to assisting investors who are interested in learning more about Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Real Estate Mutual Funds and how to invest in them. Visit http://bankofonlinebanking.blogspot.com to learn more.
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One REIT that I know of that buys a good amount of LEED buildings is Cole REIT. I know they have silver and gold certified buildings in their diversified portfolio. I think REITs investing in LEED properties is smart and it seems to be a better long term investment to go green.
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