David Auerbach — REIT Portfolio Roast

Agree Realty is a "net-lease" landlord: it owns standalone stores and rents them to big retailers on long leases where the tenant pays the property taxes, insurance and upkeep, so the landlord's rent check is steady. It pays a dividend every month.

Auerbach rates it one of the better landlords in that space — good-quality tenants, careful about what it buys, earnings up 7% and a raised buying plan for the year, run by a CEO (Joey Agree) he trusts. The risks: if borrowing gets expensive, buying new stores becomes less profitable, and it could overpay to keep growing.

American Tower owns cell towers worldwide and rents space on them to phone carriers — very sticky, recurring rent. Tower stocks have been out of favor this year, which is exactly why Auerbach calls it the "contrarian" slot in a portfolio: a dominant business bought while nobody wants it, betting it comes back.

The worries are currency and political risk abroad, carriers merging (fewer tenants), debt, and how long it takes growth to reaccelerate. Satellite phones replacing towers is a risk he thinks is further off than those.

Apple Hospitality owns mid-priced "select-service" hotels — the Courtyard by Marriott you stay at visiting family, not the Four Seasons. Hoya owns it as one of its own picks: little debt for a hotel owner, and rising earnings and occupancy.

Hotels are the riskiest kind of real estate because every room is effectively a one-night lease, so income swings with the economy. But after the second quarter every hotel REIT raised its outlook, travel and conventions are recovering, and events like the World Cup and college football help — he thinks the sector is finally getting into position for 2027.

EastGroup owns smaller warehouses tucked inside fast-growing cities (mostly the Sun Belt) — the "last-mile" spaces that are hard to build more of. Leasing is strong and it just raised its dividend almost 13%. Auerbach calls it a core holding.

The catch: the stock is expensive right now, and because it is concentrated in the Sun Belt, a slowdown there would hit it harder than anyone.

Prologis is the world's biggest warehouse landlord — the benchmark for the industrial property sector — with a top-rated balance sheet, leases that step up rent automatically, and a growing side business building data centers. "It's Prologis … absolutely a core holding." The only knocks are foreign-currency exposure, the capital its development pipeline needs, and a premium price.

Regency owns neighborhood shopping centers anchored by a grocery store — the kind "in everybody's backyard" that people visit every week regardless of the economy. Occupancy is just under 97% and new leases are signing at more than 10% above the old rents. Auerbach calls it the Prologis of shopping centers and a core holding, but it is expensive, so it is a name to watch for a better price. Losing a grocery anchor is a perennial risk for these centers, but he isn't hearing warning signs now.

MAA owns high-quality apartment complexes across the Sun Belt. Builders flooded those cities with new apartments, which forced landlords to discount rents — that is why it has been Jeremy's worst performer. Auerbach says the extra supply is being absorbed, rent growth is improving, and managements say "the worst is behind us," so late 2026 into 2027 should bring tailwinds. Hoya holds it.

Invitation Homes is the largest owner of single-family houses for rent. With too few homes and high mortgage rates, many families can't buy, so renting a house is part of the affordability answer. It is about 97% full, earnings are up and the political/regulatory heat has largely passed. Hoya owns it in its housing ETF and likes it; the watch items are the same costs any homeowner faces (taxes, insurance, repairs) and slower rent increases in some cities.

Lamar owns billboards — and because zoning makes new billboards nearly impossible to build, the existing ones are a protected, near-duopoly asset. Turning static boards into digital screens lets it sell more ads per sign. It is an income play (Berkshire Hathaway once owned it — "boring is good"). The risk: in a recession companies cut ad budgets, and it carries more debt than most REITs.

Equinix runs data centers where networks and cloud providers physically connect — essential plumbing for the internet and AI, with a relationship with Nvidia. Revenue and earnings are growing. Auerbach's main problem is price: the stock has "been on a tear," and data centers need lots of power and capital. Good business, but valuation is "the biggest drawback right now."

Sun Communities owns manufactured-housing (mobile home) communities and RV parks. It is simplifying — selling its UK business to focus on US manufactured housing — which makes the story easier for investors to own, and its debt is moderate. Auerbach likes it but calls it "one to watch": RV parks suffer when gas is expensive, the UK sale still has to close, and new management (including a CFO hired from Equity Residential) must prove it can turn the cleanup into per-share earnings growth.

Ventas owns senior-housing and medical properties. Auerbach's one criticism of the portfolio was too much weight in housing and warehouses, so he suggested adding healthcare or senior-housing landlords such as Ventas or Welltower — a demand driver (an aging population) that doesn't move with apartments or industrial.

Welltower is the other senior-housing/healthcare landlord he named as the fix for a portfolio overweight in residential and industrial property.

Extra Space Storage rents self-storage units. He suggested self-storage "as a complement to the residential holdings" — people store belongings when they move, downsize or rent — with Extra Space as one option.

Public Storage is the largest self-storage owner and the other name he offered for adding storage exposure alongside the housing REITs.

RIET is Hoya's own REIT fund holding about 100 REITs across every property type. His pitch for a fund over one REIT: each property type is at a different point in the real estate cycle, so a basket catches whichever is rising instead of betting everything on one landlord like Realty Income. For investors who won't check their REITs every quarter, an ETF does the homework.