The Best Way to Invest in Real Estate

If you think profiting from residential real estate requires lots of elbow grease, or dabbling in commercial real estate is beyond your financial means, you probably aren't familiar with real estate investment trust (REIT) investing. REITs come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have a few things in common. They trade on major exchanges just like common stocks, but unlike regular companies, they avoid taxation as long as they distribute nearly all of their profits to you, the shareholder.

Buying and selling shares through an online brokerage account is easier than finding a washed-up celebrity flipping houses on television, but simplicity is just one advantage REITs have over directly investing in real estate. Here's a look at a few more benefits this asset class provides individual investors that you probably won't hear about from Vanilla Ice.

REIT investing allows individual investors to expand beyond the residential-property sphere. Image source: Getty Images.

Source: Fool.com