REIT Analysis Workbook: Evaluating Real Estate Investment Trusts for Your Portfolio

Deciding which REITs or real estate funds belong in your portfolio requires more than reading a fund description. It requires understanding how to read key metrics like funds from operations, dividend yield sustainability, and debt levels — and how to compare those metrics across sectors and individual holdings. This course provides the structured templates to do that analysis yourself. By the end of this course you will be able to screen REITs using a standardized set of financial metrics, compare two REITs within the same sector using a side-by-side analysis template, evaluate a REIT's dividend sustainability, and determine an appropriate allocation size for real estate within a broader investment portfolio. What you will learn: - Funds from operations (FFO) and adjusted FFO: why they replace earnings per share for REIT analysis and how to calculate them from financial statements - Dividend yield and payout ratio analysis: how to assess whether a REIT's distribution is sustainable or at risk of a cut - Debt metrics for REITs: debt-to-EBITDA, interest coverage ratio, and what healthy leverage looks like by sector - A sector selection framework: how to evaluate the demand drivers and risk factors specific to residential, office, retail, industrial, and specialty REITs - How to use a REIT screening checklist to narrow a large universe to a shortlist of candidates - Portfolio allocation exercise: calculating the real estate weight in your current portfolio and modeling the addition of a REIT position - Reading a REIT's supplemental operating data package: the key tables and metrics that publicly traded REITs provide beyond standard financial statements Each of the six modules pairs instructional reading with a structured worksheet. You will work through a REIT screening template, a sector comparison table, a dividend sustainability analysis, and a portfolio allocation model using either real data from a REIT you select or provided hypothetical figures. A final self-assessment exercise asks you to document a buy/hold/avoid decision for one REIT with supporting evidence. This course is designed for investors who already hold a basic equity portfolio and are ready to evaluate real estate securities analytically. Suitable for those with no prior experience reading REIT financial statements. This course is educational and does not substitute for advice from a licensed investment advisor.