Spot on. Taxes have been missing from this entire HN discussion. A primary reason for investing directly in real estate (even in a syndication as a passive investor) is to get the tax benefits. For example, with the "eREITS" from fundrise mentioned above, these are just like public non-traded REITS (ie no depreciation, interest deduction, or 1031 exchange).

Often with a strong commercial real estate project you can show taxable losses but still get positive cash flow. Why? Because of generous IRS depreciation treatment of the improvements. Then, when you get to the end of the investment and you can sell it, you can just defer the capital gains taxes indefinitely by using a 1031 exchange. This can be done until you die, when your heirs will get your property with a "Stepped up basis", effectively eliminating the capital gains tax altogether.

You can't get this with REITS. Doesn't matter if they are publicly traded, non-traded, private, or the new fad eREITS.