Best Options For Passive Investing

[Daniel B.]

Hi all, I've been investing in RE for the past 6 years or so. In that time I've done a couple of house hacks, a BRRR, and built up a portfolio of 7 doors. However, these days I'm getting much busier with work and less tolerant of the overhead of dealing with rentals. I've offloaded my existing units with property managers, which works well, but does not help with my desire to continue to do more deals.

In light of that, I'm looking for suggestions on what some options are for more passive investment strategies and peoples' thoughts on them. I've been looking at the possibility of doing a JV, but it seems like being fully passive is potentially legally problematic. Private money lending is another possibility I've considered but it's quite a daunting proposition to find someone I can trust with a large chunk of money. Either of these options still requires quite a bit of work through networking, vetting, etc. Do I have any other options that I haven't thought of? Are these two my best bets? Am I sounding like I should just buy a REIT?

Appreciate any input!