Today, we are talking about real estate decisions, from comparing REITs and syndications to understanding the tradeoffs in liquidity, structure, and risk. We also cover how to spot red flags in private deals before you commit your money and talk about avoiding PMI when buying a home. In the transcript below, you can read a dentist’s take on how dental insurance really works. The question is whether buying individual publicly traded REITs is a reasonable way to invest in real estate, or if it ends up being an inefficient middle ground compared to REIT index funds or private real estate. The short answer is that while you can invest this way, it is generally not the most effective approach. Publicly traded REITs sit on the most passive end of the real estate spectrum, and the typical recommendation is to use a broadly diversified index fund like the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF, which essentially owns the entire publicly traded REIT market.…