Real Estate Investment Trusts

     I would really like to start learning more about Real Estate Investment Trusts. They are not like traditional real estate investment, where a person owns a house and rents it out in some way like traditional lease or air bnb. The traditional way seems extremely messy and time consuming, plus frustrating when you have to clean up after tenants who leave a lot of broken furniture and garbage. The houses in my neighborhood are like this, it seems whenever I see someone moving out from my neighborhood there is a yard full of broken furniture and trash bags sitting in the easement.

     Real estate investment trusts are an investing tool. They are companies that own and usually manage income producing properties. And to avoid income taxes, they distribute 90% of their earnings to their investors. 

     There are private and public REITs. For simplicity sake, I am only going to focus on the publicly traded Trusts.

     The NAREIT website has a complete list of REITs, and you can sort it by public and private. 

     So my plan is to invest in senior living REITs, particularly any that involve those big 55+ apartment complex and independent living facilities. I know that people are saying there are going to be fewer and fewer retirees utilizing those resources, but from my perspective I just see more and more people moving there. I see a lot of family disconjugation and seniors unable to take care of their homes, and these senior living complexes are a perfect solution. 

     I can also see the benefit in investing in hospital and medical office real estate. They seem like pretty reliable tenants. 

     I'm conflicted about commercial real estate. Seems like there's plenty of vacant spots all over town.

     It would be interesting to invest also in residential, as there is definitely a current demand for housing. That's why three adults and a toddler live in the two bedroom house next to mine. 

     The best website that has an active index of REITs is the NAREIT, where you can sort all of the known REITs by public versus private and what class of real estate they specialize in.