Gary Beasley

One of the most common questions I get from aspiring real estate investors is whether to buy property directly or purchase shares in a real estate investment trust, commonly referred to as a REIT.

For those who aren't familiar with REITs, these vehicles allow individuals to buy shares in companies that own real estate as their primary business activity. While some REITs are private or non-traded, in this article we'll focus on the publicly traded REITs, which are the most visible and can be purchased by any investor with a brokerage account. I used to run one of the largest publicly traded single-family rental REITs called Starwood Waypoint (now part of Invitation Homes), which I took public in 2014. Today, I'm the CEO and co-founder of a marketplace for buying, owning and selling single-family rental investment properties — so I'm pretty familiar with both sides of the argument. More...