The Top REIT Stocks Compared: Which REIT is Best?

My Portfolio: https://www.patreon.com/dividendbull

In this video we're going to compare some of the most popular real estate investment trusts and determine which one might be the best for dividend investors based on a variety of different metrics. We'll be looking at a bunch of different data and award points based on which REIT comes in first, second, and third. For each category, the stock in first place will receive three points, the stock in second place will get two points, and third place will receive one point. I'll also give bonus points where I think a stock might deserve it for having an impressive feature. All of this information was gathered from each company's website as well as from other financial websites, including Seeking Alpha, Google, and Yahoo Finance, and is up-to-date as of the making of this video.

When it came down to picking what REITs to include in this video I knew I'd have to set some guidelines. According to NAREIT, there are more than 225 REITs trading on U.S. stock exchanges. And taking the time to calculate metrics and compare all of them would be too time-intensive. So I decided to compare the top 8 REITs, which I picked based on four qualifications. First, all of these REITs are U.S.-based, which is where I'm located and is the largest REIT market. I also did not include mortgage REITs for this comparison, only equity REITs. mREITs are so different and have their own unique metrics that it would've been impossible to fairly compare them to the equity REITs.

It was also my goal to only include REITs that I consider to be well diversified. Within the real estate investment trust realm, you have very sector specific REITs, like data storage REITs and even a post office REIT. But then you also have REITs that own a wide variety of different property types, like anchored grocery stores, restaurants, offices, gyms, convenience stores, and so on. I felt like these REITs would be the best because they're so diversified in what they hold. It's my opinion that if you could hold one REIT, then one of these would be the best type to consider. Then finally, I chose REITs based on a mixture of total market cap and how popular they are based on Google searches and Seeking Alpha follows.