3 Ways, Including An Alternative, To Invest In Real Estate

It’s the day after. And, damn, it wasn’t even close.

The stock market freaking loves Donald Trump’s with the Dow up more than 3% and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq just over 2% mid-morning post-election day.

Now the uncertainty around what Trump will do and how he’ll do it. We have no idea what’s going to happen with anything, especially things that are clearly out of control. However, if history tells us anything, it’s that – regardless of who’s in charge – the stock market and housing prices go up in what is ultimately a straight line.

At the moment, this trend doesn’t seem to be in for a change.

Speaking of wealthy business people…!

The Juice was watching a Martha Stewart documentary the other night. (It’s pretty good. We recommend it!). They showed an old CNBC clip the day her company went public. In 1999. In the corner of the screen, it showed the S&P 500 at about 2,500 and the Dow at a bit over 10,000. (Remember when we celebrated Dow 10,000 and partied like it was literally 1999)? 

Today, we’re flirting with 6,000 on the S&P and we’re comfortably above 40,000 on the Dow. 

As for housing prices — dude.

The median price of a home nationally in 1999 was around $150,000. Today, it’s closer to $450,000. Quite a leap, even when you take inflation into account. 

All of this said, The Juice thinks the best thing investors can do is chill, no matter who you voted for.  

And stick with us as we end the year and go hard into 2025 with content focused on how you can most effectively blend traditional stock market investing with alternatives. 

Consider real estate.

You can buy it directly. If you can afford it — as in, you’re not stretching yourself financially — that’s probably not a bad idea. But, if you’re going to live in the property you buy, is it really an investment? If you sell it, you need someplace else to live. Sure, you can make money if you purchase that next place armed with a ton of equity, but I think you catch our drift here. 

Living in a house is different from being a landlord. Another good idea if it can work for you. However, the cost of entry can be high and it’s a freaking job. One that might not be worth it, particularly if the difference between what you’re paying out (e.g., mortgage payments, insurance, maintenance, etc.) and taking in (rent from tenants) is slim. 

Another way to invest in property is through real estate investment trusts (REITs). 

We take the formal definition from our favorite REIT resource, Nareit: 

A real estate investment trust (“REIT”) is a company that owns, operates or finances income-producing real estate. REITs provide an investment opportunity, like a mutual fund, that makes it possible for everyday Americans—not just Wall Street, banks, and hedge funds—to benefit from valuable real estate, present the opportunity to access dividend-based income and total returns, and help communities grow, thrive, and revitalize.

Most REITs pay out close to 100% or more of their taxable income, because IRS regulations allow them to deduct the dividends they pay from their taxable income. Therefore, when you buy REITs — the same way you do a stock, via the stock market — you’ll likely receive dividend income you can reinvest or take as cash. 

And the cool thing about REITs is that you can buy them in plenty of categories. Of course, there are residential REITs, industrial REITs, healthcare REITs, storage facility REITs, mortgage REITs and, as seen in today’s Trackstar top five at the bottom of the page, retail REITs. You can get at pretty much any area related to real estate via REITs. 

So, The Juice highly recommends REITs. 

The third way to get at real estate as an investor is a relatively new way — an alternative way — via private equity investing where you can purchase a small chunk of a real estate portfolio (call it a non-traded REIT) via an online platform with relatively low barriers to entry. 

For example—

• Fundrise: $10 minimum investment / Fundrise’s flagship real estate fund is up 4.72% YTD and exposes you to different types of properties. Fundrise recently added venture capital investing, which we’ll look at later this month.  
• Yieldstreet: Typical minimum investment starts at $10,000 / various objective-based curated portfolios to choose from including real estate and other alts. We’ll also look deeper into Yieldstreet later this month.  
• RealtyMogul: Typical minimum investment of between $25,000 and $100,000 / invest in residential, industrial, office projects via objective-based curated portfolios.

The Bottom Line: All levels of investors now have access to real estate investing. If you can’t afford or don’t want to take the traditional route, you can chart an alternative course. 

In the coming weeks, we’ll review specific private equity investing platforms, including Fundrise, Yieldstreet and, one focused on venture capital solely, StartEngine. Post-election and headed into 2025, you’ll be armed with all you need to know to construct a long-term portfolio with the perfect balance between traditional investments and alts.

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