is usually illiquid
influenced by highly local factorsrequires big initial capital outlaymay require active management and expertiseinvesting in real estate indirectly is done through a real estate investment trust reit a company that holds a portfolio of income producing real estate there are several types of reits including equity mortgage and hybrid reits and are classified based on how their shares are bought and sold such as publicly traded reits public non traded reits and private reits the most popular way to invest in a reit is to buy shares that are publicly traded on an exchange the shares trade like any other security traded on an exchange such as stocks and makes reits very liquid and transparent income from reits is earned through dividend payments and appreciation of the shares in addition to individual reits investors can trade in real estate mutual funds and real estate exchange traded funds etfs another option for investing in real estate is via mortgage backed securities mbs such as through the vanguard mortgage backed securities etf vmbs made up of federal agency backed mbs that have minimum pools of 1 billion and minimum maturity of one year 4 or the ishares mbs etf mbb which focuses on fixed rate mortgage securities and tracks the bloomberg u s mbs index its holdings include bonds issued or guaranteed by government sponsored enterprises such as fannie mae and freddie mac 5liquiditydiversificationsteady dividendsrisk adjusted returnslow growth low capital appreciationnot tax advantagedsubject to market riskhigh feesmortgage lending discrimination is illegal if you think you ve been discriminated against based on race religion sex marital status use of public assistance national origin disability or age there are steps you can take 6 one such step is to file a report to the consumer financial protection bureau or with the u s department of housing and urban development hud 