Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Owning REIT vs owning real estate - which has a better hypothetical ROI?
REIT is to property as Mutual Fund is to stock.  In others words, a REIT spreads your risk out over a greater number of properties, making the return safer, at the expense of both upside and downside risk. On average, both would average out to be the same. That said, you have a much wider range of outcomes when investing in a single property. As with stocks, over the long haul, unless you think you can somehow beat the market, divirsification is usually considered the better move.  Technically, your ROI is the same, but your beta is much better in a REIT.