Sounds good, right? Sitting back and collecting a nice rent check every month — without having to be the guy who fixes the roof or calls the plumber or has to deal with tenants who skip town without paying or have loud parties and annoy the neighbors? It’s perfect!
And, of course, it’s been eminently possible for a long time — though without the huge profit of being a physical landlord and renting out a house or a few apartments, because you don’t necessarily benefit from the huge amount of cheap leverage that residential mortgages provide. But Ian Wyatt is hoping you’re not aware of that — the idea of investing in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) is, of course, very much mainstream among individual investors, but if he can convince you that he’s the font of information on that topic, well, maybe you’ll sign up for his newsletter.
So yes, today’s pitch for the Thinkolator’s consideration is from Ian Wyatt, who is promoting his High Yield Wealth newsletter, and he’s got an idea that he thinks can generate “up to” $4,734 a month in “rent check” income for you. So what is it?
Well, I’ve already let you in on part of the “secret” — it’s a Real Estate Investment Trust, that much is pretty obvious… but which one?
If you’re not familiar with REITs, they are companies that effectively have a pass-through tax structure like a BDC or a MLP or a partnership — the work under a special IRS classification that says companies whose business is primarily in real estate (typically either as owner/operator and landlord, or in real estate financing) and who elect to be REITs can avoid paying taxes as long as they pass along 90% or more of their taxable income to their shareholders in the form of dividends. Those dividends are then treated as income for the shareholders, and are taxed at the individual shareholder level (or not taxed, if the shares happen to be held in a tax-free account like a Roth IRA).
This is obviously appealing for many companies, avoiding corporate taxes and paying high dividends, and many nontraditional real estate companies have converted to REIT status or are considering it — including American Tower (AMT), which owns cell phone towers, and several data center or data warehousing stocks like Equinix (EQIX) and Iron Mountain (IRM)… even some telecom networks are joining the REIT party, with Windstream (WIN) in the process of spinning off much of its fixed-line network (what we used to call “telephone wires”) into a separate REIT. But most REITs are still much more understandable and traditional — they own apartment buildings or office buildings or industrial buildings, they rent out space to customers, and they collect rent and pass along the income to shareholders.
So which one is Wyatt excited about now? Let’s look into the clues he provides:
“Become A Partner Today – Collect a Rent Check Next Month
“To break it down for you in the most basic terms: I’m talking about becoming a partner with an already-established landlord.
“But not just any landlord:
“An extremely successful, well-diversified landlord with a Harvard MBA, who has some of the wealthiest and most reliable long-term tenants in the nation.
“A landlord whose 72 rental properties across the country (encompassing nearly 10 million square feet,) are currently 98% occupied.
“And that’s part of the reason this landlord is able to pay out such consistent and oversized ‘rent checks’ to partners.
“In fact, long-time partners have now received 93 consecutive monthly ‘rent checks.'”
He calls this being a “Paper Landlord,” and he notes that this particular landlord you would partner with also has a few good things going for him…
“… this landlord specializes in commercial and industrial properties….
“… major American corporations like Corning, T-Mobile, Penzoil and Sara Lee….
“Not to mention this landlord has struck a pretty amazing deal with them.
“You see, he’s made Corning, T-Mobile, and the other tenants agree to cover 100% of the property tax, insurance, maintenance and repairs on the their rental properties.
“If it sounds like an unusual lease, you’re right.
“But from the landlord-perspective, it’s the perfect arrangement. (And believe it or not, his tenants don’t seem to mind it one bit.)
“And because his properties are so well diversified – he owns commercial, industrial AND medical office spaces spread all across the country – even if one sector, region or property should be hit by hard times, or a long-term tenant should decide to vacate – it only represent a small fraction of portfolio.”
Are you getting our free Daily Update
"reveal" emails? If not,
just click here...
That’s perhaps slightly unusual in the world of REITs, but it’s by no means unique to any one REIT — that’s called a “triple net lease”, where the landlord essentially charges less rent than a full-service real estate operating company would, and takes on no real work — the tenant does all the maintenance and pays the property taxes and essentially acts like the owner… but doesn’t have to have their own capital tied up in owning the building or carrying mortgage debt, which is important for many companies.
So this is some kind of triple-net-lease REIT, of which there are quite a few — which one? Well, we fed all that into the hopper of the Mighty, Mighty Thinkolator and got our answer: Gladstone Commercial (GOOD), a REIT that Ian Wyatt has also touted and teased a few times in the past. And yes, I’m thankful that today he’s teasing it as a way to be a landlord… which is much more accurate and less disingenuous than his past teases that buying this REIT was like getting a “property tax rebate.”
This is indeed a high yielder, the current distribution gives a yield of about 8% — well above average for a REIT. That usually means that there’s some kind of risk involved — maybe the REIT is too levered (has too much debt), or has troubled properties or tenants, or perhaps they simply aren’t growing (a growing dividend is far more valuable than a static one, all else being equal). What’s the story with GOOD?
Well, the quick assessment, just from looking at their financials, is that they aren’t growing the dividend — and they can’t grow it, because the Funds From Operations (FFO) isn’t growing on a per-share basis (FFO is typically used as a “cash earnings” metric by REITs, it removes non-cash stuff like depreciation). Their operating cash flow has failed to cover the dividend for four years now, so they would not have been able to pay the dividend if they didn’t continually sell more stock and borrow more money each year.
Which isn’t to say that the company isn’t growing — it is. It’s just not growing on a per share basis, so all investors are really getting is that dividend, which looks like it’s big enough that it has a little bit of a “wasting” effect… it is — all else being equal — slowly paying out equity to investors (not cash flow or income, but more of a slow liquidation). That’s probably an exaggeration, especially because it’s quite possible that their real estate is worth more than the carrying value on the books and because they seem to have plenty of access to pretty inexpensive financing, but I don’t see any reason to expect anything beyond the dividend… and if anything happens to threaten the dividend (like another financial crisis), they could be in some trouble.
GOOD does have expert management, it’s part of the Gladstone stable of income-producing investments (including Gladstone Land, a farmland REIT, as well as the BDCs Gladstone Investment and Gladstone Capital) and they do generally have strong tenants with mostly long-term leases that provide a decent return.
Wyatt gives us some hope that things are about to pick up with this little tease:
“In a recent conference call, the landlord I’ve been telling you about stated:
‘I think this year might be a good chance for us to raise the [amount of partner rent checks]’.”
Which is, I suppose, true — but you have to have a pretty open definition of “recent” … that quote is from one of Gladstone Commercial’s conference calls in 2012. And no, they haven’t raised the dividend since then (the last dividend increase was in January of 2008). David Gladstone, the Chair and CEO, is the one who said back then that they might be able to raise the dividend, and he continues to say that he wants to, but — as you can read in their most recent conference call — it’s not likely to happen soon. They are focused on deleveraging, a process they’ve been working on for a while as they pay down some debt, which means they’re steadily issuing new shares to pay off debt as well.
So in the end, actually, GOOD is unlike most REITs in that it’s somewhat of a tax-advantaged income vehicle — a little bit similar to a MLP. That’s because they’re not making any profit on the corporate level, so their dividends are generally “return of capital,” which doesn’t create an immediate tax liability for shareholders like “income” does — it just lowers your cost basis in the shares, so it’s effectively like deferring the tax liability until you sell the stock. In 2014 the distribution was all return of capital, they have said they expect it to be about 80% return of capital in 2015.
And to give them some credit, they are very focused on keeping the dividend and not cutting it — they could easily (and maybe should have) cut the dividend in 2008 and 2009 when many of their competitors were under pressure because of financing costs (or lack of financing availability), but they didn’t… so their investors are probably pretty confident that they can keep paying that 8% yield. They are also focused on continuing to grow their asset base so they can appeal to institutional investors (the market cap is well under $500 million now, and volume is pretty light), and that’s also how they earn their management fee (Gladstone Management earns a fee based on the size of the portfolio, and incentive fees if they do well — no incentive fee last year, but they are clearly motivated to make more purchases and increase the size of the property portfolio). Growing should also make them more efficient, at least in theory, and give them more flexibility in refinancing their properties — so perhaps growth in size will eventually lead in growth in per-share metrics like cash flow and FFO and, probably most important to GOOD shareholders, dividends.
Will it work out well for them? I expect they’ll keep paying the current 8% yield as they return capital to shareholders, though they are refinancing some debt by steady issuance of equity so that new equity continues to cost them 8% as they owe dividends on those new shares. This is the kind of situation that can end badly if they get a big hiccup, either from interest rate changes or from internal problems or financing challenges… but probably won’t, given the current market and their ability to buy, sell, borrow and trade over the years to keep the dividend train rolling. If you are excited by GOOD, my personal guess is that we’ll see dips in all the REITs at some point this year as the Fed seems likely to cause some more interest rate panics that tend to drive down the shares of all income investments… but that’s just a guess. I’m keeping some cash on hand because I hope to buy some more quality dividend payers at cheaper prices, including some REITs, but GOOD isn’t currently on my “looking to buy” list.
Have some thoughts on GOOD, high-yield REITs, income stocks, interest rates, or whatever else? Throw them on the pile with a comment below — perhaps you can help make us all just a wee bit wiser.
P.S. Remember that $4,734 number? If you want to get that as a monthly “rent check” from Gladstone Commercial, you’ll have to buy about 37,000 shares — which would cost you a little less than $700,000 (I’m rounding)… so big monthly payouts obviously don’t come without big outlays of capital. By way of illustration, that’s not too far from what you’d earn by buying a couple decent rental houses in my town with cash (no mortgage) and renting them out, you might well be able to buy a house for $350,000 and rent it for $2,300 a month… and it would certainly be easier to own GOOD shares (or some other high-yielding REIT) and not have to do maintenance… but, of course, the returns on those houses could be much more levered if you used mortgages, and if you’re buying rental houses you have something a little more “solid” to pass on to future generations or count on as a buttress against inflation, there’s no dilution or financing or management fee eating away at that real estate value. And, of course, you get something to keep you awake at night if there are ice dams in the roof or termites in the basement, or they decide to widen your road and turn it into a highway.
Could you tell me what amount of investment required to get $4,734 rent a month (REIT). is it based on $100,000, $ 250,000 or $500,000 ?
This REIT has an 8% annual yield — the average for REITs is more like 4-5% these days. So to get $50,000 a year (that’s actually slightly less than the $4,734 a month) you’ve got to have an investment of between $500K and $1 million or so, depending on which specific REITs you’re looking at.
If the GOOD is not on your list, it would be great to find out what list you might have for quality dividend players. š Any suggestions? Thanks!
REITs are not generally cheap right now, and I think we’ll see buying opportunities during interest rate panics at some point in the coming months, but the ones I personally own today are MPW, ROIC and COR.
For a few years now I’ve been in GOOD (in a traditional IRA), but I watch it closely and I’m ready to pull the plug at any time.
I’m also long ROIC (again in a traditional IRA), and I like it a lot better.
Penny
Travis – There is a slight error early on in the article where you refer to the company as GLAD rather than GOOD. GLAD is indeed another Gladstone company but it’s a BDC not a REIT. BTW I’ve met David Gladstone a couple of times and he is a very sharp guy, ex-FBI. I have no problem investing in any of his companies (and neither does he since he owns several million shares).
Ooops, thanks — will fix. Yes, GOOD and LAND are the REITs, GLAD and GAIN are the BDCs (they’re not particularly similar to each other, other than the fact that they’re all managed by Gladstone’s firm)
Why pay the subscribtion fee for High Yield Wealth newsletter? Most of this info is for free on Seeking Alfa.com. Brad Thomas is the “REIT guru.” Publishes all his writeups about a week or two after publishing his iReitnewsletter (Subscription price is $99/yr if you want the info ASAP —- since REITs are slow, steady eddy growers, no need to subscribe.
Here’s a link to a sample of Thomas’ REIT analyses — free on Seeking Alfa.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2822346-unlocking-the-power-of-compounding-reits-that-pay-monthly
Forgot to add — I am long “Triple Net Lessors”
O — Basic real estate properties — yield about 5% — monthly div payouts
STAG — Industrial wherehouse REIT — yield about 5.5% — monthly div payouts
HTA — MOB (Medical Office Blgs — where Docs have their offices) — yield about 5% — quarterly div payouts
DLR — Data Center REIT — about 5% yield — pays quarterly.
Travis, thanks for the good sleuthing and the info on REITs. I have never owned an REIT and I have a tax-related question: How much of a tax hassle is there in owning an REIT such as this one, both regarding the dividends (presumably declared on a 1099 form?), and when the REIT is sold, how is the lowered cost basis (due to return of capital) tracked and managed? Does the REIT report this on an end-of-year form? Does it require triple-back-flips in TurboTax to get it right? I try to avoid messy tax situations such as MLPs and their hellish K-1s.
Dave —
Simply stated, REITS (1099s) and MLPs (K-1s) are 2 different animals. Each has its own tax consequences and how you file based on whether its held in a tax deferred account or taxable brokerage account.
REITs aren’t partnerships, so they don’t generate anything as cumbersome as a K-1 — I can’t speak from experience, since I’ve only owned REITs in tax-deferred accounts and haven’t owned many that did much “return of capital” in their dividends, so I don’t do any tax work on them at all… but I’m pretty sure it’s all simply broken out in the 1099 just like other stocks (and dividends), and 1099s report all cost basis info now so I don’t imagine it would create any work… I don’t know if brokers split out return of capital in 1099s or not and reduce your cost basis for you so you don’t have to keep those records, but hopefully they do — that would be the one possible recordkeeping complication of these kinds of return of capital divs from a REIT that comes to mind.
Thanks Travis, much appreciated.
Travis, I called TD Ameritrade about tracking the reduced basis and they said that GainsKeeper does the tracking, so when the GK info is downloaded and imported into TurboTax, the reduced basis is accounted for. Easy.
Gee, I was all ready to dive in, but I really need $4735/month. š
Thanks Travis for doing the math. This is so typical, copywriters tease you with a great sounding month;y return, ($4734) without giving any hints as what investment is required to achieve such a return.What a time waster for anyone with less than at least a million in investable capital, and even then it is a pretty big chunk for a single investment. A pox on all of their houses for such meaningless drivel for the average investor.
The sad thing about average investors – there’s one born every minute.
I keep asking myself, “What 10 did I make up for?”
By the way, Myron – we miss you. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Got stopped out with a 15% loss in Fall of 2012. Currently paying $1.50/yr. with a -$.61 loss so how long will that rent prevail???
Dear Travis,
As long as you are dispensing tax information, you should mention that dividends from REITs are taxed as ordinary income as opposed to the usual corporate dividends which
are taxed at long-term capital gains rates.
REIT dividends are not taxed in any tax-qualified pension plan i.e. traditional IRAs.
There are negative aspects to REITs. The payout of 90% of their income limits the accumulation of surplus. For expansion purposes, they may have to issue more common stock which dilutes current stockholders’ interest. Or they may issue debt or preferred stock which increases their expenses. As to return of capital, these amounts are nontaxable to the extent of the investor’s basis in the stock and reduce that basis. Payments received after basis has been reduced to zero are reportable as long-term capital gains.
It takes superior management to grow a REIT. I checked the price of GOOD exactly ten years ago. It was $ 18.02. Today’s close $18.03.
Cheers, Irv Cantor.
Good points — yes, growth per share is challenging, particularly for REITs that are trying to delever. GOOD has actually almost doubled in size, and therefore increased Gladstone’s management fee …but the share count has pretty much doubled, too.
Thanks Irving, your comment answered a question I would otherwise have bothered Travis with. I’m trying to determine which REITs would best weather the next financial/economic crisis, and now realize that in order to do that I’ll have to pull out my old college accounting texts and bone up (most of that which is never or little used is forgotten). I didn’t love those courses and when I look at those texts it’s “sigh, head shake, shrug.” Too bad. These are not the times for any investor to be lazy and rely only upon the analysis of others whose goals and economic views may be very different from one’s own.
Hey Travis,
What is your opinion of AGNC? It has an annual percentage of 12.7% compared to others that people have talked about?
Thanks!
The mortgage REITs scare me in general, since they’re such a direct (and often highly levered) play on interest rate spreads, but several folks have asked and I’ve been meaning to take a look at them again — I think there might even be a current teaser pitch rolling about one of these from Agora or Oxford, but I’ll have to dig around in the teaser pits and see if there’s anything interesting to talk about.
Got in 7/26/11, 250@ $28.81 – did nothing else but collect divs until 3/2013 and then started getting in & out, plus selling calls and puts – Call & Put premiums are now too low so I just set on 200 shares and collect mon divs – My cost basis for 200 shares is now only $141 with $44/mon coming in, will have “free” 200 shares in 4 mos, so I’m in pretty good shape BUT I do pay attention to what is going on as I don’t want to lose all the profit I’ve attained at this point.
I’m retired, so I can check on my investments daily but generally leave them alone except for my Call & Put Money.
You might want to check out PSEC, PNNT, NLY, CYS, etc. BUT you need to watch low buy/sell volume stocks CLOSELY. I didn’t always do that and have paid some expensive “tuition” a few times in the last 15 years.
Good Luck !!!
Real estate Is A Over blown sector Supply and demand should determine prices for housing and commercial real estate not hot money pushing up real estate prices When prices decline demand will eventually increase. What we have today is a phoney market place in real estate some how prices are supposed to increase faster than incomes Thats unsustainable eventually residential real estate prices must come into equilibrium with wages and salaries. Alright all of you real estate bugs out their did you learn your lesson between 2006- 20012 going forward good
Late to this article but the idea of having a stand alone tenant pay taxes, maintenance, etc. is not unusual.
We lease to a fortune 500 company and they assume all costs.