While some folks count sheep in order to drift off into sleep, have you ever thought of counting swans?

Forbes.com contributor Brad Thomas recently offered his four top picks of real-estate investment trusts for retirement with enough stability to allow you to “sleep well at night,” or as he referred to them, as SWANs.

“My primary objective in writing is to steer investors to safety -- so that their retirement portfolios don’t get whiplashed,” Thomas recently explained.

“Over the years, I have seen many writers attempt to lure retirees into high-yielding stocks, only to see their principal erode because they were chasing ‘fool’s gold,’” he wrote.

“I am not only providing these ideas because the shares are cheap (in price), I am also including them because I believe that they are defensive ‘flight to quality’ names that retirees can enjoy for their stress-free lifestyle,” he said.

His four SWAN picks (noting that he owns all four):

1. Simon Property Group (SPG) is a mall REIT that owns 235 “class A” malls and outlet centers in North America, Europe, and Asia totaling over 190 million square feet. "Simon is able to generate very stable and predictable earnings and dividend growth," he said.
2. Ventas Inc. (VTR) is a diversified healthcare REIT that owns a diversified portfolio of around 1,200 properties. "Ventas has an attractive well-covered dividend and shares now yield 5.1%," he said.
3. Kimco Realty (KIM) is a best-in-class shopping center REIT that owns 450 shopping centers. The portfolio is focused geographically in the top 20 markets in the U.S.
4. W.P. Carey (WPC) is a Net Lease REIT that invests in industrial, office, retail, warehouse, and self-storage properties in the U.S. and Europe. The company has 1,186 properties leased to 304 tenants that cover 133 million square feet of space, with a current market cap of $11 billion.

To be sure, Barron’s also recently touted two REITs. The financial publication predicted that Essex Property Trust (ESS) and Realty Income (O) are poised to become S&P 500 "Dividend Aristocrats."

To be an aristocrat, a company must have increased its dividend every year for at least 25 years, as well as being in the S&P 500 index, Barron's said. Essex Property Trust (ESS) and Realty Income (O) had boosted their disbursements for 24 consecutive years as of Dec. 31. 

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