Real estate investment trusts (REITs) can be a great way to balance out high dividend income and capital appreciation. These dividends can be used to pay bills or to turbocharge returns through dividend reinvestment.

The blue-chip REIT Realty Income (NYSE: O) has been a winning investment ever since going public in 1994. An investment of $5,000 in the stock made 29 years ago would now be worth a staggering $246,610 with dividends reinvested. For context, that is triple the $82,260 that the same investment amount in the S 500 index would be valued at today. Let's detail Realty Income's fundamentals to better understand what's behind these market-obliterating returns.

Sometimes businesses don't want to deal with financial institutions to have their capital needs met. When this is the case, sale-leaseback transactions offer an alternative way for a company to harness the equity stake they have in their real estate.

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Source Fool.com