Do I need to know what the buildings are, or is the ticker enough?

There is a middle amount of homework that gets you most of the way, and it isn't rent rolls.

At the fund level, two numbers. First, the sector weights, which are on the fund page and in the fact sheet, so you know whether you own 3 percent office or 14 percent. Second, for individual names, whether the dividend is covered by cash flow rather than by borrowing, which means comparing the payout to funds from operations. FFO is the REIT version of earnings, net income with property depreciation added back, because a building that is being maintained isn't losing value on the schedule the depreciation line implies. AFFO goes further and subtracts recurring capital spending, which is the number I actually use.

If payout per share is running close to or above AFFO per share, the dividend is under pressure and the yield you see quoted is a number about the past. That check takes ten minutes per name and it is where most of the beginner damage happens.

What you don't need is a view on individual leases. At the portfolio level you're buying a management team's aggregate decisions, and you can't audit those from outside.

Knowing the buildings has never helped me as much as I expected it to. I can walk a parcel and tell you a lot about it, and none of that told me anything useful about whether a listed apartment owner is priced well. Those are different skills. Holding through a bad 18 months is the skill that has actually paid, and it doesn't require knowing what a warehouse clear height is.

@sextant the payout versus AFFO check is the first concrete thing I've read in this room that I could actually do this afternoon. Is that number published anywhere directly or do you have to build it from the filings?