Quote:
Originally Posted by fredr123
A bit off topic, but Global seems to be running ads for Homerun Investments a lot lately. The commercials are irritating but the spokesperson in the ads seems to really push that "real estate is a safe investment" mantra. I think the investors on the other end of the cases I mentioned above probably felt the same way. Now they have gone through a foreclosure and at the end of the day they have a chunk of land to call their own in a falling market. I'm willing to bet they signed up to be real estate investors and not real estate developers but that's exactly the position they are in after the foreclosure. |
Some bond fund that always advertises on the FAN who 'Guarentee a return of 8%, because they are backed by real assets' is such a gimmick and is borderline unethical. A lot of securities associations stress that it's unethical to make investment guarentees when the underlying securitiy and its returns are not backed by the government. Meaning that the people running places like this either:
A) Have respectible credentials but choose to operate in a way that puts them at risk,
B) Don't have respectible credentials in the first place, or
C) Represent firms that do not have a good code of ethics.
Any of the above options wouldnt' make me feel good investing with them.
I'm skeptical of pretty much all 'alternative investment vehicles' that get hocked on TV. Quite often they are extremely illiquid investments that have dubious prospects. The reason why they are advertising them on TV with catchy names hoping suckers pump in a pidly $1,000 per head, is because richer or institutional investors said 'no thanks get the fata out of my office'.