There are advantages and disadvantages of investing in both that you will need to be aware of. 30316 is mostly ITP, but also covers a very large area that includes great and not so great neighborhoods.

The advantages of the fund:-doesn't take any of your time at all, it's invest and forget about it (can be time consuming to do the due diligence on every trust deed)-monthly interest paid can be reinvested so interest compounds-your money is always earning interest vs. when you lend on individual trust deeds your money is not earning any interest when a loan pays off and you are looking for the next loan while Disadvantages of a fund:-you lose control and you are putting your trust in the judgement and skill of the HML making the loans in the fundAny other opinions on this?  

And, if you choose well, you can select a sponsor that has many years more experience than you can ever hope to have (and avoid rookie mistakes that you might make).The disadvantage is that you have to feel comfortable with doing that vetting (and which is something not everyone feels comfortable doing).

If so can anyone briefly point out the advatages/disadvantages if any?

The only thing we may disagree on is that your ability to judge risk, market value, get a great deal, force appreciation, and manage costs of operations is greatly diminished OOS compared to locally ... this disadvantage has a tendency in my experience to trump any perceived or actual advantages of investing in OOS RE markets over the long haul.

I understand all of these options have their advantages and disadvantages but I am looking for someone smarter than me to give some input that may be helpful.

The second question is apart from the extra closing costs, what other disadvantages does it have?

Interested in helping disadvantaged youth, he created a foundation to assist them.

Until now, I've always treated business and philanthropy separately.Do any landlords out there mix "giving back" with their business by, for example, allocating a percentage of their unit portfolio to higher-risk / disadvantaged / needs some help tenants?

If I misread the linked article, my apologies.Unfortunately, as the links in the article indicate, there is research evidence aplenty that certain names bring disadvantage over others generally in the US--e.g. one finds more opportunity with a name like Ron than Jamal.