Profiting from Real Estate - Now It's as Easy as R-E-I-T

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IF "REIT" came up on a crossword puzzle, many Americans might need more than one clue.

But since the early 1990s, investors have poured billions of dollars into these investments: real estate investment trusts. The market value of their shares has risen 160 percent to more than $100 billion. Assets held by REITs - property, buildings, etc. - are valued at more than $88 billion.

Though the REIT road has its bumps, like any risky investment, shareholders have fared well. Looking at the past five-year period, REITs outperformed a number of benchmarks, including the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, according to industry officials. The most popular type of REITs, …