How stocks are classified
Understand how size, style, sector, structure and dividend policy describe different features of an investment.
Read the introduction →Understand the property.
Then follow the cash.
36 free guides to REIT businesses, financial measures and dividend analysis. Start from the basics or go straight to the question in your filing.
Looking beyond REITs?
Search all learning rooms for stock basics, BDCs, operating companies, calculators and historical filing practice. The filters below remain dedicated to the 36 REIT guides.
Before choosing a learning room
Start with the labels.
Tickers, exchanges, indexes, and ETFs
A beginner guide to stock-market labels: tickers, NYSE, Nasdaq, the S&P 500, ETFs and basic trading vocabulary.
Read the introduction →Ready to read company accounts? See how the three financial statements connect.
Two learning rooms
Studying a lender rather than a property owner?
BDC accounting follows loan income, credit marks and funding costs. Follow the dedicated four-level BDC curriculum rather than applying REIT FFO and AFFO to a lending fund.
Open BDC learning →Four levels / one connected library
Choose your depth.
Level 01 / 6 guides
Beginner
Build the foundation. Start with what a REIT owns, how a shareholder gets paid, and the difference between income and investment return.
Open learning path ↗Level 02 / 18 guidesIntermediate
Connect the business to the numbers. Read different property models, then follow the accounting bridge from property operations to common-share distributions.
Open learning path ↗Level 03 / 8 guidesAdvanced
Stress the assumptions. Move beyond a single ratio. Connect valuation, refinancing, per-share dilution and dividend funding across scenarios.
Open learning path ↗Level 04 / 4 guidesExpert
Make the research reproducible. Work through definition differences, joint-venture ownership, financing timing and competing interpretations in an evidence-led research memo.
Open learning path ↗Start with the business
What a REIT owns, how it earns income, and what shareholders actually hold.
Learn the accounting
Follow FFO, AFFO and the adjustments between earnings and recurring cash.
Read the lease
Understand tenants, property expenses and the risks inside long contracts.
Test the dividend
Put the payout alongside recurring capex, debt and a downside scenario.
The REIT reading room
Open the glossary ↗Find your next question.
36 guides
No REIT guides match these filters. Try a shorter term or clear the filters, or search all learning rooms for BDCs, stock basics and operating companies.
What is a REIT? Follow the asset, the income and the claim
Understand how a US REIT earns income, what shareholders own, and why a dividend is different from a guaranteed property return.
Read the guideListed, non-traded and private REITs: access changes the risk
Separate a REIT's business model from its trading structure, liquidity, fees and disclosure obligations.
Read the guideThe 90% REIT rule: taxable income is not cash flow
Why the US distribution requirement cannot be used as a dividend safety test or an AFFO payout target.
Read the guideHow to read a REIT filing without getting lost
A practical reading sequence for the 10-K, 10-Q, earnings release and supplemental operating tables.
Read the guideDividend yield versus total return: count both sides
Calculate income and price change together, and understand why a rising dividend yield can be a warning rather than a reward.
Read the guideDividend reinvestment: compounding with assumptions visible
Understand what a DRIP changes, what it cannot fix, and how to interpret a constant-yield reinvestment model.
Read the guideREITs and interest rates: more than one transmission channel
Separate financing costs, property valuation, tenant demand and rent growth when thinking about interest-rate changes.
Read the guideA REIT research checklist: from business model to open questions
A repeatable, evidence-first worksheet for reviewing a REIT without reducing the analysis to a single score.
Read the guideNet-lease REITs: contracts, credit and the cost of growth
Understand triple-net leases, tenant credit, rent escalators and why long contracts do not guarantee stable shareholder returns.
Read the guideApartment REITs: rent growth is only half the story
Read apartment occupancy, concessions, resident turnover and supply alongside operating expenses and recurring property investment.
Read the guideIndustrial REITs: warehouses, rent resets and supply
Learn how logistics properties earn rent and why lease spreads, building specifications and development exposure need separate analysis.
Read the guideRetail REITs: tenant sales, lease terms and redevelopment
Distinguish shopping centers and malls, then connect tenant sales and occupancy to the landlord's sustainable cash flow.
Read the guideOffice REITs: lease expirations and the cost of occupancy
Analyze office properties through lease rollover, tenant improvements, effective rents and the funding required to retain occupants.
Read the guideHealthcare REITs: properties, operators and reimbursement
Separate healthcare property ownership from operating exposure and examine the different risks in senior housing, hospitals and medical offices.
Read the guideData-center REITs: power, capacity and capital intensity
Understand data-center leasing, power constraints, development spending and the difference between demand growth and shareholder returns.
Read the guideTower REITs: colocations, carrier concentration and ground leases
Examine tower revenue growth through tenant additions, amendments, cancellations and the obligations beneath the infrastructure.
Read the guideSelf-storage REITs: street rates, existing rents and turnover
Learn why storage occupancy and advertised move-in prices can send different signals about revenue and operating performance.
Read the guideHotel REITs: RevPAR, operating leverage and renovations
Connect hotel room pricing and occupancy with operating profit, brand obligations and the cash required to keep properties competitive.
Read the guideMortgage REITs: spreads, leverage and book-value risk
Understand why mortgage REITs require a financing and credit framework rather than the operating-property metrics used for equity REITs.
Read the guideREIT ETFs: what diversification does and does not solve
Read REIT fund holdings, index rules, costs and distributions before assuming that a real-estate label defines the exposure.
Read the guideFFO: reading REIT performance beyond net income
Understand the FFO bridge, per-share growth, and why adding back depreciation does not make buildings free to maintain.
Read the guideAFFO: useful estimate, nonstandard definition
Learn to audit recurring cash adjustments and compare AFFO definitions before comparing payout ratios.
Read the guideNOI: separate the property from its financing
Build a property operating view and understand why positive NOI does not guarantee positive shareholder cash flow.
Read the guideNAV: an estimate with assumptions, not a price promise
Construct a simple net asset value bridge and test how debt and capitalization rates change the result.
Read the guideCap rates: reading income, price, and risk together
Understand the cap-rate equation, differences from dividend yield, and the limits of acquisition spreads.
Read the guidePayout ratios: choose the denominator before judging safety
Compare FFO and AFFO coverage without confusing dividend policy with the REIT taxable-income distribution requirement.
Read the guideDebt maturities: read the calendar, not just the average
Map refinancing needs against cash, committed liquidity, lease risk, and future borrowing costs.
Read the guideInterest coverage: test the earnings cushion
Understand coverage ratios, covenant definitions, and why principal repayments require a separate check.
Read the guideDilution: follow your share of the business
Distinguish a rising share count from harmful economic dilution and evaluate acquisition growth per share.
Read the guideLease expirations: the calendar behind rental income
Read lease rollover exposure, renewal economics, downtime, and why long leases can be both protection and a constraint.
Read the guideSame-store NOI: test growth inside the existing portfolio
Understand comparable-property pools, cash versus accounting growth, and the exclusions that can change the story.
Read the guideDividend cuts: analyze the funding gap before the yield
Build a dividend stress review using recurring earnings, liquidity, debt repayments, and board disclosures.
Read the guideExpert workshop: normalize AFFO across competing definitions
Rebuild two hypothetical issuer reconciliations, distinguish owner earnings from cash timing, and test whether apparent dividend coverage survives normalization.
Read the guideExpert workshop: build NAV through joint ventures
Reconcile proportionate ownership with consolidated reporting, eliminate duplicate assets, and stress a multi-entity NAV model.
Read the guideExpert workshop: model refinancing, fees, and dilution
Build partial-year and full-year earnings bridges for debt refinancing with and without equity, then reconcile the separate cash budget.
Read the guideExpert workshop: write a falsifiable REIT research memo
Separate facts from assumptions, test opposing explanations, and turn a valuation spreadsheet into an auditable research document.
Read the guideDifferent assets, different questions
Explore the property sectors.
Beyond the REIT library
Keep the wider context.
From learning to a research note
Answer the next practical question.
REIT vs BDC: dividends, cash flow and risks
Compare US equity REITs and BDCs: AFFO vs NII, property and credit risks, NAV, and a worked example of two identical dividend yields.
Open the guide ↗Ex-dividend date vs record date vs payment date
Understand US dividend dates under T+1, ordinary cash-dividend entitlement, special-distribution exceptions and why dividend capture is not free income.
Open the guide ↗Dividend research worksheet for REITs and BDCs
Build a source-linked dividend research note: locate filing inputs, reconcile AFFO or NII, record risks, then download or print your worksheet.
Open the guide ↗Practice with primary evidence
All filing labs →Read a real filing. Rebuild the numbers.
Realty Income 2024: reconstruct AFFO and its payout ratio
Use the dated SEC reconciliation to rebuild AFFO, compare paid dividends with an annualized rate, and explain why aggregate and per-share payout ratios differ.
Work through the source →