... who is finally starting to think about retirement. Before you make any decision on precisely what to invest in, you need to determine why you’re investing—you need to define your investment ... variables, including growth prospects, perceived risk, and interest rates. Real estate was at a cyclical low with respect to prop - erty cash flows in 2004, and was in the process of bottoming—pro - viding ... their assets into REITs.While it’s true that, on a long-term, total-return basis, REITs have been competitive with the S&P 50 0 index, in the short term, REITs are a singles-hitter’s game....