REIT
ALPS Active REIT ETF
stock NASDAQ ETF

One thing to know: AGNC doesn't collect rent. It's a mortgage REIT that owns government-backed mortgage bonds and funds them mostly with borrowed money (about 88% borrowed), so the debt is the business, not something it pays off. Right now the payout isn't covered either, cash flow covers about 0.4x of it, and debt grew 40%+ last year. Risk is 4/5. NAV held up last year, which is why it's flagged "watch" rather than eroding. Fine as a small high-risk bet, just don't own it for the rent story.

The best REIT, a dividend king, down from 67 a few months ago all the way to 53. Low 50s has been a great time to buy, but earnings coming in a few days. Lots of headwinds but have they suffered enough already? Divvy now 6%. Time to scale in? Thoughts?

I really like Agnc as it yields around 13% in dividend and is very cheap. At 9 dollars 1 share with a 13% dividend is amazing but, with 2 bilion CoH and 90 billion dollars of debt is certainly not a good situation to be in. But I like taking risks with these types of stocks especially with REIT's. I think taking balance sheet risks with REIT's is ok because they generate a lot of cash flow from rent which will eventually pay off their debt.
Lmk what your thoughts are on AGNC. I'm down for a discussion!

i think a good way to diversify from the REIT-heavy portfolio you’re building is to add a defensive ETF—something like vpu or idv gives you the utility spread and a solid yield without the rent‑roll upside a lot of a REIT has. if you’re into a bit of a play, a small‑cap industrial REIT like xp or a spinoff could give a slightly higher yield with a lower beta. dca your way and you’ll probably be fine when rates rise.

70% of their rent revenue comes from two clients - MGM and Caesers. That alone has kept me away from this stock forever, and now Caesers has gone private. There are many other better options in the REIT or energy space for trustworthy dividends without concentration risk.

The biggest issue would be if NVGCB decides to close the REIT loophole on not requiring licensure.

If it were my kid, I’d pull that and split it 75/25 between an S&P etf like VOO and a dividend etf like SCHD. Maybe a REIT as well.
Your son has years to experience the gains from compounding and weather the downturns.
You could also pull that and put it into a bonds at this point and get a guaranteed better return then your HYSA if you’re not planning on having him touch it for 3-5 years

the payout ratio is the thing that makes this feel different from the usual high yield trap. most of the time when you see an 8% yield it's a REIT about to cut. this one's actually got breathing room.

also people forget VICI owns the actual dirt under those casinos. even if the tenants struggle, the land value in vegas isn't going to zero.

Teaching him about compound interest is a great idea BUT by focusing on individual stocks you are undercutting that foundation. Individual stocks without having the experience is gambling. Individual stocks require knowledge and time to ensure that there is growth in the portfolio.
A better way is to create a simple ETF portfolio based on 3 groups.
1 Whole market ETF OR a S&P 500 ETF. One or the other.
1 High Dividend ETF.
1 REIT ETF (real estate Investment trust).
Since ETF's are managed by professionals and have low fees you don't need years of experience to pick winners. And you don't need to be constantly watching them.
I recommend reading, The little book on common sense investing by John C Bogle. An easy to read book about investing.
After a few years of learning about the market THEN you can start to think about individual company stock.

The damage on the balance sheets of REIT's and Life insurance companies

I think whats happening is that these companies that **issue** the mortgages/bonds at a floating rate are getting lumped into the rest of the sector that would have to pay more on their bonds, just based on their sector. Just being classified as a REIT or involved with real estate gives you the kiss of death
But...thats so retarded, surely the market wouldnt make that simple backwards mistake?

What’s your favorite currently and why? I currently have shares of O, MAIN, JEPQ, SCHD, AGNC, and some other REITs. I’m very REIT heavy and looking to diversify a bit more.

Check out the triumverate. NNN, MAIN, and EPD. Three dividend stocks that all yield more than 6%, and have raised dividends for more than 15 years straight, and all three average increasing the dividend by 4.6% CAGR. One is a REIT, one a BDC, and one an MLP. All different sectors, and all pay me very nicely every month or quarter, and pay me more year over year even if I never buy another share. Never have to sell shares.

REIT dividends typically are 199A dividends taxed at 80% of your ordinary tax rate due to the QBI deduction.
So not as good as qualified dividends, but nit as bad as interest or ordinary dividends that are neither qualified nor 199A dividends.

First off, go read - the little book of common sense investing by john C. Bogle. It's written to be easily understood, no wall st. jargon. This will give you a good foundation to be able to make your first investment pick.
The easiest method is to invest in index funds (ETF's). These are large funds that target a segment of or the entire stock market. They are managed by pros and have low cost management fees.
I would start with either a whole market ETF or a S&P 500 ETF, not both.
Then pick a high yield dividend ETF. These are targeted to the more riskier companies but because they are managed they are relatively safe and pay higher dividends.
Last, a good Real estate Investment trust (REIT). These are funds that invest only in a real estate segment. They are required by law to pay out 90% of their profits as dividends.
Stay away from ANY individual company stock until you are more experienced.

YTD PFE is up almost 15% and pays annual dividend 5.95%. O dropped to 55 its lowest in 5 years. It dipped because its a REIT in an environment where interest rates going up. Im stacking it. People said SCHD had 0 growth its beating the s&p500 for growth at 20% rn and has a 3% divy. Nvidia has been fluctuating between 180-220 for over a year. I'd make more from just the dividend payments of O alone. To each their own.

Some of these REIT valuations are getting absurd. I know they move inversely with bonds but at this point it seems like a major overreaction.

I did not learn about dividend investing for income until I was 10 years into retirement. Big regret that I didn’t know about that kind of investing at retirement because we ran through at least $1M savings funding our retirement travel, etc. Before I learned about dividend securities.
Think people should convert to dividend investing at retirement latest for income replacement. Better to start learning and experiencing the differences of dividend investing say a year before retirement so you transition to dividend income more smoothly from your work income. That is what I am advising my family and friends approaching retirement.
Regarding types of dividends, I was first recommended to invest in preferred dividend stocks listed on the NYSE or Nasdaq with a B or better Moody’s rating. Think that was because that is what my friend had started with several decades earlier. There are a lot of other dividend investment securities now and more being offered almost daily. Initial portfolio yield was 8% because I was buying discounted preferreds during the COVID recession at the time getting a yield boost from my dollars invested.
As I learned more about all the types of dividend securities, I kept discovering ones that offered higher yield than quality par priced preferreds (5 to 7% yield) during the recovered markets after the COVID recession. Having a goal of improving my portfolio yield as much as possible, I started selling my preferreds and investing in dividend stocks and funds of all types - Dividend Kings, REIT, CEF, index, etc.. improved my portfolio yield to 10% by year 3.
Picking quality high yield individual dividend stocks was a lot of analysis work compared to picking high yield dividend funds that did not erode in stock price over time (yield traps) gave me better yields with the fund managers doing all the heavy lifting of individual stock analysts for their portfolios. Found dividend funds with at least $1B in AUM (assets under management) with a consistent high (10%) dividend payment over at least 5 years with at least several hundred thousand shares traded each day worked well for me. By year 4 my portfolio yield had increased to 12%. That is my current yield minimum for any new holdings.
Then, late in year 4 I learned about the new covered call ETFs offering yields as high as 100%+. In year 5 I started test investing in a couple with 5% of my portfolio and liked the yield boost. By year end had increased my portfolio yield to 19% but noticed my total return was dropping from stock price erosion with some of these CC ETFs. At my year end portfolio review, I sold the worst eroding of the CC ETFs and am achieving a 16% portfolio yield with to me reasonable total returns.
So now my portfolio has a couple high yield individual dividend stocks and the rest are quality dividend funds and dividend Index funds & ETFs with about 10% of my portfolio in CC ETFs with yields of 30 to 50% for the super high yields. Willing to risk 10% of my portfolio’s discretionary funds for the additional income. I monitor my CC ETF holdings the closest of all my holdings due to their higher risk of stock price erosion.
I can live with this level of investment risk for the greater income it gives me me. Dividend investing has become my favorite retirement hobby so, very actively (daily) manage my portfolio which I believe keeps me aware of any underperforming holding that I actively replace ASAP with other dividend funds to maintain my portfolio yield and total returns.
With this size portfolio spread across 16 holdings mostly paying monthly, I am receiving dividend payments every other day on average. I reinvest the excess dividends I do not spend weekly on average. That involves deciding whether to reinvest in more shares of my existing holdings or finding a new dividend fund to add to my portfolio? So back to dividend fund analysis and decisions keeping me current with the market.
Let me recommend some good dividend investing knowledge and experience resources. This subreddit with its 900k subscribers has lots of great information and learned experiences reading the posts and replies including investment tips. YouTube is another great resource with the many dividend investment authors contributing there. My favorite author is Dividend Bull who has a 5 year long library of videos for beginners to experienced dividend investors. Posts weekly with great high yield dividend securities information and recommendations.
Long answer but this is my journey to very high dividend income which has changed our retirement to financial freedom. Wishing everyone the best in accomplishing the same. Good luck!

On the COVID part, I think you might be onto something, just not quite in the way you mean. COVID didn't change the rules of investing, but it did change how some types of property get used, and REITs aren't all the same thing. Office REITs, for example, have had a much harder time since remote and hybrid work became common, while other sectors like warehouses and data centres have had very different stories.
So before deciding anything, a good first step is checking what your REIT actually holds. If it's a broad REIT index fund, you're spread across lots of property types, and the recent drop is mostly the interest rate effect others have explained. If it's a single REIT or one focused on a specific sector, the reasons it's falling could be quite different, and those are the ones to understand first.
It's also worth looking at total return rather than just the price. REITs pay out most of their income as dividends, so the price chart on its own doesn't show the full picture of what you've actually earned.

We have a Vanguard REIT in the past and sold them years ago.