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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Real estate is how Arnold Schwarzenegger made his first million.

And while many people would like to make it part of their investment portfolio, investing in real estate can be cost-prohibitive. Still, there are ways to add real estate to your portfolio if you know what investment vehicles are available — and whether you qualify.

Some real estate investment opportunities are reserved for accredited investors, defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as someone who has an annual income of at least $200,000 ($300,000 if combined with a spouse’s income) or has a net worth of at least $1 million.

The SEC limits the types of investments non-accredited investors — those who don’t meet the income or net worth requirements — can make.

Still, there are options for people who don’t meet the SEC criteria.

They can invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs) like Boston Properties (NYSE:BXP) and Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG), which they can access through stock market exchanges. Equity real estate investment trusts (eREITs) are another opportunity.

Both have benefits and drawbacks. Investing in REITs, for example, ensures you can access your money simply by selling your shares — something that’s more difficult to do if you own the property itself.

While not owning real property may be appealing, the performance of a REIT is highly correlated to how the stock market is doing, which could put off some investors.

Accredited investors have the option to invest in real estate through aggregator platforms, which is an indirect model where investors invest their money with the aggregator platform who then invests into a sponsor’s dealThis model gets you closer to owning real estate more directly than a REIT but investors still face high fees and the platform may also take a portion of the investor’s return. 

Keeping it Real

Another option for people who want to invest in real estate away from the stock market is direct investing, which gives them more decision-making power than REITs do by letting them choose specific properties they want to own alongside a dedicated real estate manager and instead of investing with a platform that then invests into a managers deal, you invest directly with the real estate manager

One company that gives investors an opportunity to own real estate directly is RealCrowd, a Portland, Oregon-based investment platform that enables investors to find and passively invest in properties across the country with zero platform fees charged to investors.