Should I buy rental property or invest in a REIT?
REIT investors have the potential to generate capital appreciation gains in share price over time, but direct ownership of rental property allows investors to build equity in a tangible asset. While your tenant is paying the mortgage on your rental property, you're building valuable equity.
REITs provide a much simpler way to invest in real estate and earn consistent income through dividends, but they confer less control, and their upside tends to be lower than that of rental properties.
While real estate investors may see lower returns than stock investors in aggregate, those with rental properties can expect a relatively steady income stream from their tenants. "It is much easier to find cash flow in real estate than in the stock or bond market," says Shaun M.
Non-traded REITs have little liquidity, meaning it's difficult for investors to sell them. Publicly traded REITs have the risk of losing value as interest rates rise, which typically sends investment capital into bonds.
With rate cuts on the horizon, dividend yields for REITs may look more favorable than yields on fixed-income securities and money market accounts. However, REIT stocks are only as good as the properties they own — and some real estate sectors may be better positioned than others.
Because the REIT manages the property, investors are not burdened with the everyday stress of vacancies, tenants, management or repairs. REITs also pay out dividends to investors, providing a reliable passive income stream.
Most of the time, REITs offer better returns with lower risk for most investors. But especially today, REITs offer far better return prospects and much lower risk because their valuations are so heavily discounted. Investing in REITs provides both a margin of safety and future upside potential.
The drawbacks of having rental properties include a lack of liquidity, the cost of upkeep, and the potential for difficult tenants and for the neighborhood's appeal to decline.
Following the 10% rule is another way to calculate the rate of average cash flow. Divide the yearly net cash flow by the amount of money that was invested in the property. If the result is over 10%. Then this is a sign of positive and a good amount of average cash flow".
Interest rates are tipped to remain high
Like 2023, this means that unless you have decent capital for a large deposit, buying an investment property in 2024 is going to cost more than in previous years. Renting out a home with a mortgage? Read this first.
What I wish I knew before buying REITs?
A lot of REIT investors focus too way much on the dividend yield. They think that a high dividend yield implies that a REIT is cheap and a good investment opportunity. In reality, it is often the opposite, and the dividend does not say much, if anything, about the valuation of a REIT.
REITs historically perform well during and after recessions | Pensions & Investments.
The FTSE Nareit All REITs index, which tracks the performance of all publicly traded REITs in the U.S., had an average annual total return (dividends included) of 3.58% during the five-year period that ended in August 2023. For the 10-year period between 2013 and 2022, the index averaged 7.48% per year.
April 2, 2024, at 2:50 p.m. Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, are a great way to invest in the real estate sector while diversifying your options. Real estate investments can be an excellent way to earn returns, generate cash flow, hedge against inflation and diversify an investment portfolio.
But since REITs are invested in property, there's more protection against the horror show of having shares crash to $0. By law, 75% of a REITs asset must be invested in real estate. The market value of the property owned by the REIT offers a bit of protection, as long as the value of the property doesn't go to zero.
That's because when interest rates rise and yields balloon, their valuations tend to suffer, which is what happened after it became clear in 2021 that the U.S. Federal Reserve would embark on an aggressive, multiyear tightening campaign. Many REITs experienced declines of more than 50% after that point.
As mentioned above, stocks generally perform better than real estate, with the S&P 500 providing an 8% return over the last 30 years compared with a 5.4% return in the housing market. Still, real estate investors could see additional rental income and tax benefits, which push their earnings higher.
Are REITs Good Investments? Investing in REITs is a great way to diversify your portfolio outside of traditional stocks and bonds and can be attractive for their strong dividends and long-term capital appreciation.
REITs have outperformed stocks on 20-to-50-year horizons. Most REITs are less volatile than the S&P 500, with some only half as volatile as the market at large. Several individual REITs delivered significantly higher returns than the S&P 500.
In most cases, REITs utilize a combination of debt and equity to purchase a property. As such, they are more sensitive than other asset classes to changes in interest rates., particularly those that use variable rate debt. When interest rates rise, REITs share prices can be prone to volatility.
What are the problems with REITs?
Some of the main risk factors associated with REITs include leverage risk, liquidity risk, and market risk.
Real estate investment trust (REIT)
By law, REITs must pass on at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholders. Unlike direct ownership in rental property, owning REIT shares doesn't give you control over how the fund is managed or which properties it holds. That's left to fund managers.
An extended vacancy is undoubtedly one of the biggest financial risks involved in investing in rental homes since it's essentially lost money. If you can't consistently rent your space, you're still responsible for paying the property's expenses — without generating income to offset the cost.
Protection Against Inflation
Owning a rental property is a safe investment and an even better asset that can make money during periods of high inflation. It gains value when inflation is high and creates cash flow from renting during any economic period.
Some investors may be tempted to skip claiming depreciation to avoid the risk of depreciation recapture tax, but this generally won't succeed. The IRS assumes that you have taken a depreciation deduction. You will owe 25 percent of what you could have deducted as a “depreciation recapture” when you sell the property.
