This cycle seems fundamentally different than the previous cycle.

Worked full time as a real estate broker for 2 years.THEN, I began purchasing property; investing in mortgage notes; investing in real estate securities; buying discounted existing mortgage notes; and syndicating real property and notes; and establishing a real estate note fund.My experience in the real estate investing business for 43 years is that 98 out of 100 wanna be investors are not successful, often because they are studying techniques or strategies without making the effort to gain the fundamental knowledge to properly analyze “deals”.  

@Mary Stead Some complicated answers to this thread.Bottom line tldr version: People lost money because they purchased a home for more than it was fundamentally worth. 

There is a fundamental shortage of housing - basic supply and demand3.

Is the process still fundamentally the same or is there a drastically different approach?

I believe the article displays a fundamental misunderstanding of the US monetary system.

Point is the past gain or loss means nothing its the fundamentals of the market they are in that matters.All in in all I think if someone really does not want to learn about any details one has to learn that takes time (how much to put in for R&M in a property, how to buy a property correctly, how to fund ppl you can trust in your RE network, etc.), wants income and is really comfortable analyzing the market trends to pick a REIT (office market, storage market, commercial residential market, etc.) than a REIT can be a good investment.

This is a fundamental point that investors understand.

Many people don't want to use Quickbooks because they don't want to learn accounting fundamentals. 

I say all this is to point out that you should always rely on the fundamentals of real estate analysis and surround yourself with a great team.