10+ unit buildings these days are owned by either people who got them in ancient times or full time owners with corporate management. The market is fairly different and involves a different lending market. In the midwest this is more common because 10 unit complex can be under $500,000, and rarely go above $2 million.

Scaredy: REITs are not good investments for someone already well exposed to RE.

I actually am short SPG, a mall reit. This is as a hedge against my own local portfolio.

“Worst case” is that they go up and my much larger investment in rentals goes up too.

What could happen with spg is even if things reopen fairly soon, some of their marginal tenants won’t survive. Retail was already doing badly before Covid. A 2 month shutdown, another 2 month partial shutdown, then a recession….

The company is leveraged by about 10, so if you assume a 10% decline in the value of malls, their balance sheet is negative.

That’s an oversimplification, as they’ve taken a lot of paper depreciation losses that as of 1/2020, did not reflect the market.

Finally, they agreed to buy another mall reit for cash at a giant market premium. I read the sales agreement, and I don’t think they can wiggle out.