12 Great Real Estate Picks to Stuff Your Stockings With Now

The holiday season is a time for giving, and a well-chosen investment in the stock market can keep doing that for years to come. The real estate industry is a great place to look for promising equities.

That broad sector includes homebuilders, commercial and residential real estate brokerages and managers, and property owners such as real estate investment trusts (REITs), which must pay dividends due to their tax status.

Here's a list of 12 proven performers.

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Realty Income (NYSE:O) generates income from a portfolio of more than 7,000 commercial properties it leases to thousands of tenants in 60 different industries. Its top three tenants are 7-Eleven, Walgreens, and Dollar General. Realty Income also brands itself as the Monthly Dividend Company because that's what it does, and it's been doing just that without fail for 52 years.

ALSO READ: Balancing Your Portfolio: How and When

Prologis (NYSE:PLD) is both one of the largest publicly traded REITs and one of the world's largest owners of industrial real estate. That's a very hot sector right now, and Prologis is a major player, with nearly a billion square feet of warehouse and logistics space in more than 4,700 buildings spread across 19 countries. Its more than 3,000 clients include Walmart, Home Depot, FedEx, and Amazon.

There's a reason self-storage places have been popping up everywhere in recent years: It's a growing industry with a relatively low cost of entry.

But newcomers will have to contend with the likes of Public Storage (NYSE:PSA), which bills itself as the largest owner/operator of self-storage facilities on the planet. The company boasts thousands of locations providing more than 170 million square feet of rentable storage space in the United States and Europe.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) is considered the largest REIT of all and has a portfolio of more than 171,000 owned or managed sites on five continents.

Mobile towers are at the heart of the telecommunications infrastructure that carries the internet and voice communications around the world, and AMT is adding to its prowess by getting heavily into data centers and other ancillary essential technologies.

ALSO READ: Real Estate Investment Trusts: What They Are and How to Invest in Them

Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) occupies a unique and growing niche in the legal cannabis business. This REIT buys and leases growing and processing facilities to medical marijuana companies. IIPR is a newbie on this list, having just launched in 2016, but the company already owns 76 properties in 19 states.

Expect its business to keep growing as long as marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, since that makes traditional financing hard to come by for state-licensed growers.

5 Stocks Under $49

Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor

We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE: ARE) is the first and largest REIT to focus strictly on developing, owning, and operating life sciences, ag-tech, and technology offices and campuses.

Alexandria is a garage startup that, in 27 years, has grown to include about 290 properties primarily in and around San Diego, Boston, greater New York City, the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle, and North Carolina's Research Triangle. Major clients include vaccine producers Moderna and Pfizer.

ALSO READ: Only 7% of Homeowners Use This Technology That Could Save Them Thousands

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) owns and operates more than 220 data centers in 62 major metros around the world, with a client list of more than 260 Fortune 500 companies and 10,000 customers.

This REIT alone provides an estimated 11% of the market for the storage and transmission of data, making it an essential cog in the digitally connected world of co-located infrastructure.

Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) has an interesting, profitable niche of its own as a leading owner and operator of manufactured home communities, RV resorts, and campgrounds.

Generating nice rental income for this REIT, the company's 434 properties across the country allow it to provide the affordability and mobility that today's retirees and remote workers are seeking out to support their lifestyles.

ALSO READ: Alternatives to Single-Family Homes: Condos, Townhouses, Apartments, and More

Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) is one of the world's largest commercial real estate managers, with more than 95,000 employees and operations in more than 80 countries. JLL is heavily involved in green initiatives and proptech while managing 4.6 billion square feet of diversified office and other space worldwide. Each Lasalle investment arm has over $73 billion under management and works in 15 countries.

ALSO READ: 4 Commercial Real Estate Predictions for 2022

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) is one of the nation's largest homebuilders, with a focus on affordable move-up and active-adult homes, as well as multifamily rental properties. The company also offers financing, title, and closing services.

Lennar builds more than 50,000 new homes a year and is now working on a project in Austin it expects to be the largest community of 3D-printed homes in the country.

5 Stocks Under $49

Presented by Motley Fool Stock Advisor

We hear it over and over from investors, "I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I'd be sitting on a gold mine!" It's true, but we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Click here to learn how you can grab a copy of "5 Growth Stocks Under $49" for FREE for a limited time only.

This company’s “For Sale” signs are a familiar sight, and for good reason. RE/MAX (NYSE:RMAX) is one of the largest franchisors of real estate brokerages, with more than 140,000 agents and a presence in more than 100 countries and territories. The company’s Motto Mortgage financing operation launched in 2016 and already has 175 offices in the United States.

The Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF (NYSE:VNQ) is by far the largest of all the electronic-traded funds (ETFs) that specialize in REITs. VNQ uses the MSCI US Investable Market Real Estate 25/50 Index as its benchmark.

This fund holds shares of about 170 of the more than 200 publicly traded REITs, offering diversification and exposure while letting the experts decide what to buy, sell, and hold.

ALSO READ: Investing in REIT ETFs

This list should be just the beginning of your research on what stock or stocks would be the best choice for your holiday gift-giving, whether it's for someone else or for your own portfolio. Do your own due diligence -- and do it well -- and you'll be among the millions of shareholders who have made billions of dollars investing in publicly traded real estate equities.

Marc Rapport owns shares of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Innovative Industrial Properties, and Vanguard Real Estate ETF. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends American Tower, Equinix, Innovative Industrial Properties, Prologis, Terreno Realty, and Vanguard Real Estate ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Alexandria Real Estate Equities. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.