There are several ways to approach investing in real estate that can resemble or deviate from how you typically would invest in other sources such as securities and commodities. The similarities between real estate investments and other potential sources can be seen from futures trading to equity investment in REITs that pay regular dividend payments. These hands off investors that are involved in security style investing are often referred to as passive investors. Their positions are often liquid and short term compared to other real estate investors.
Here are some examples of REITs that a passive investor can look into:
http://www.bostonproperties.com/site/
What differentiates real estate from other sources of investment lies within the later type of investor that has more at stake in the property is referred to as an active investor. These investors either lend their own capital to others who buy the real estate in mind, and the lender will gain a healthy yield from that repaid loan, or an active investor can directly buy or gain a portion of an equity position within the property and received a steady cash-flow from either rent or other economic uses of the property. After the active investor sees fit to sell the property, he or she would like to make a gain on the sell that at the minimum covers all expenses of the property and beats the inflation during the duration of holding that property or set of properties.
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