Some landlords are doing just swell. : Real estate investment trusts (REITs) as a group have been kicked to the curb this year. The sector has returned negative 1.3% including dividends—third-worst among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors, and miserable showing compared to the index’s 16.5%. The secret to REIT picking, right now, is to identify the companies that are still collecting payments like it’s 2019. Here’s NAREIT’s most recent rent-collection data, covering rents collected between April and September—all of our newly completed “shutdown” and “re-opening” and “just kidding, we’re closing again” months.