Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)

Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT, are stocks I started my personal investing in 3 years ago. These stocks are companies that deal in real estate in some form or another. They can own the actual real estate or own the mortgages of the real estate. REITs are treated specially when it comes to tax purposes. For the corporation, all their profits are tax after the company pays out its dividends. It is required to pay out 90% of its pre-tax income to be treated as a REIT. From the individual's side they get increased pay outs from the company, a downside is  that income is treated the same as wage income and usually taxed at a higher tax rate.

I think REITs are worth looking into finding the best one that fits what you are looking for. One that I will be writing about shortly is called Omega Healthcare Investments, (OHI). Other REITs that I own are ARR, AGNC, and IVR. Look for my analysis on OHI over the next week.

This post was meant to give you a little background on REITs for my OHI article that is coming.

Omega Healthcare Investments (OHI)

Omega Healthcare Investments (OHI) has performed really well since the beginning of the year. To date the stock is up 27.5%. This is more than the general market. The company leases out real estate for health care, usually long term care facilities and other types of assistant living centers. They are also a REIT. (Refer to my earlier blog to see what a REIT is)

The company has a record of increasing it's dividend every quarter for the past few years. The current dividend is $.51. Which gives you a yield of 5.41% at today's closing price. This increasing dividend will help give the stock and higher price support with the yield. I personally have owned the stock since last December when I bought it at $30 a share. I plan on continuing to hold the stock for as long as the company keeps performing the way it has been. After the last earnings report the company increased their yearly out look. In that same report they beat their earnings estimate. I have been selling put options on this stock for almost as long as I have owned it. It's another way for me to increase my return on the stock with out needing to put more cash into it. I may even buy more of this stock in the near future.

For those investees looking to get into the real estate or healthcare sector this is a stock worth looking into.