A: A REIT is a real estate investment trust (pronounced reet). It's for investors who want to own real estate, but don't want to get awaken at 2am to fix a broken faucet.

REITs do your investing for you. They are real-estate management companies that buy, own, and manage properties that they intend to hold for the long term.

REITs trade on a stock exchange. You can buy and sell them. REITs earn income from rents, leases and the capital gains earned from selling property they own. Since by law they have to pay out most of their earnings to investors, they have a higher yield than typical stocks.

Therefore, you would buy a REIT if you are primarily interested in income. They can become growth investments if the property values in their portfolio increase.

For more information, check out these two Web sites www.reitnet.com and www.nareit.com .