Talk:Real estate investment trust
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[edit] Minor Cleanup
Changed the wording about Japanesse REITS
Removed MeriStar Hospotality since it is no longer a REIT and replaced with Host Hotels
[edit] Moved article
Article moved from REIT.--Jerryseinfeld 01:23, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- This is turning into a real article! Bearian 03:55, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] History
The history section appears essentially verbatim on this page. Not sure who copied who. There is a reference in the article for the first paragraph of the history section, but I can't find any of the information on the linked page. Also, the history section itself is entirely US related. Probably it should be renamed "History of REITs in the US" (or similar) or, if REITs originated in the US, then the text could be edited to reflect that. I'd change it, but I don't know much about this subject and the whole citing of sources issues makes this a big mess. Sewebster 19:29, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
- I took it all out. Good catch. Probably both were copied from investinginreitsDOTcom -THB 20:08, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
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- I think you mean investinreits.com, but I couldn't find the information there. I moved the remainder of the history section to the bottom of the US reit section since the information wasn't particularly historical. Hopefully we can re-add a history section when we find a good source. Sewebster 01:24, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
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- I think a well-written history section would vastly improve this article. I'll try later if nobody else does it. Bearian
[edit] One Question:
When I look at the financial data on REIT's, usually their dividend is listed as exceeding their earnings. I assume that the dividends are treated as an expense that is deducted before the earnings are calculated, but I've never seen this stated anywhere. If it's true, could you add it to the article here? User:Carl Ponder 16:02, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
- Actually, the effect that you are seeing is a result of non-cash expenses, particularly depreciation. A REIT is able to distribute more than its GAAP earnings because of these expenses, which reduce the book value of its assets without reducing cash on hand (from which dividends are paid). Even more confusingly, the income on which tax is calculated (and which determines how much the REIT is required to distribute in order to maintain its pass-through status) may also differ from GAAP income, since the tax rules often differ from the regular accounting rules. That is why REITs generally quote "Funds From Operations" (FFO) as their primary performance metric. There is, however, no legally-standardized definition of FFO like there is for earnings, so investors have to do more work to compare the performance of REITs than they would for other kinds of businesses.
- Normally, when one bases investment decisions on ignoring depreciation and other non-cash expenses, one must eventually pay the piper when those depreciated assets are used up. However, real estate investors generally operate on the theory that real estate will hold its value, or even appreciate, over time, and on average, those properties which do depreciate will be more than offset by the appreciation on other properties in the portfolio. 121a0012 01:56, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Indian Section
This reads rather like advertising from a firm selling Indian REITs. How can one verify the claim that it is good to be invested in Indian property at the moment, since one can only know for sure after the fact? Perhaps there are some statistics on the rapid growth in the amounts invested in Indian REITs, which demonstrate their popularity and would be more helpful for encyclopaedic purposes. 91.106.219.250 (talk) 21:33, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
