Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/114

 that can be studied in the daily papers. With house property there is no such facility for watching the value of the investment, and this lack, among other things, makes it quite unsuitable for an investor, unless he is confident that his interests are being guarded, with unceasing vigilance, by a solicitor or other agent, who gives close attention, and brings real knowledge, to the matter. Investments in Building Societies suffer from the same disadvantage, and an investment that cannot be watched is not one to be looked at.

Even ground rents, which rank as a gilt-edged security—and with good reason when they are good—inevitably suffer from the same lack of a free public market, and can only be indulged in on the most competent technical advice.

Anyone who buys houses outright and hopes to receive from them an income, after he has collected the rents and paid all outgoings, is indulging in a frankly speculative form of investment.

It may come right just as a purchase of shares in an oil-field that has not yet sruck oil may come right, but it requires so much technical knowledge or so much good luck, that it is outside the range of the present inquiry, which seeks to light a candle by which the ordinary