IShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors ( ICF ) is a good option for investors willing to sacrifice liquidity, cost, and size to capture the performance of just the largest few U.S. equity REITs. Unlike equities, however, income-generating real estate has some inflation-hedging qualities because property prices move in line with inflation and nonsticky rents can change as needed. Disclosure: Morningstar licenses its indexes to certain ETF and ETN providers, including BlackRock, Invesco, Merrill Lynch, Northern Trust, and Scottrade for use in exchange-traded funds and notes.