An Introduction to Real Estate Investing

There are a great many books and web sites devoted to real estate
investing out there, but most of them concentrate on one specific area
of investing. It's often hard to find a general description of real
estate investing, one that lists the various real estate investing
strategies and how to get started. That's what this article will set
out to do.

Before beginning, you must understand that real estate investing is
not a get rich quick scheme. Real estate investing can, and will,
make you wealthy, but it certainly won't happen overnight and it will
require work. As you perfect your technique and gain experience, the
amount of work needed to gain a lot of money will reduce, but it will
take effort and persistance to make it there.

If you're completely new to real estate investing then the only sort
of investing strategy you're likely aware of is rental properties.
Landlording has been around since there have been houses and people to
rent them to, and it will continue to be a wealth builder. In fact,
most of the 'no money down' real estate strategies you hear about
still include rentals as part of their plan. Still, there are other
ways to make money from real estate investing out there.

The next most 'traditional' method is to buy a fixer-upper, fix it up,
and then sell it for a profit. This is commonly referred to as
'rehabbing' and is a very good way to make a lot of money in a
relatively short period of time. Most rehabbers won't even look at a
property unless they can make at least $20,000 of profit, and this is
usually within 3-4 months time. Rehabbers tend to be experienced
investors with available money, or have partners who help provide any
extra cash required.

But if you're just starting out you likely won't have access to large
amounts of money. One way to get involved in this area of real estate
investing without needing any money at all is to 'flip' houses to
these rehabbers. What this entails is you going out and finding these
fixer-uppers, noting all the work required to fix the place up. You
then place a low offer in to the owner, taking into account the fix up
price and some built in profit. Once you have the house under
contract you then flip it to a rehabber for a small fee. This can
result in several thousand dollars for you, without you having to
spend a dime. 'Flipping' properties can be a great way to start your
real estate investing career.

Another 'no money down' technique that's popular on the late night
infomercials is called 'lease optioning'. This is basically a rent to
own strategy that allows you to control a property without ever taking
ownership of it. It's a slightly more complicated strategy that
warrents its own article, but it does allow you to make money in
several different ways, each without ever having to spend any of your
own money. If you're not put off by longer term investments then
lease options are definately worth more research.

There are other strategies that involve foreclosures and getting the
home owner to sign the deed over to you, but for now I'd suggest
learning more about flipping and lease options as entry-level real
estate investing strategies.

How do you find properties that would make good real estate
investments? Again, an entire article can be devoted to that, but
there are basically two ways: you go looking for them, or you get them
to come to you. The first way involves reading the newspaper
classifieds and scanning the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is
where having a great real estate agent is a must - they can get you
more details on homes than you can view on the mls website, and can
often let you know of great deals before they even become available to
the general public.

Having home owners contact you means setting up an advertising
campaign. This can involve placing ads in the newspaper, placing
bandit signs at strategic locations around town, starting a direct
mail campaign, etc. There are many ways to let people know that
there's a new real estate investor in town, and it would be in your
best interest to try each of them to see which ones work best for you.

Whether you decide to go looking for deals, have them come to you, or
both, they key is to be persistant. Real estate investing is a
numbers game - most of the time you won't be able to make the deal
work, but every time you do it translates into thousands of dollars
for you. The more owners you talk to, the more deals you'll be able
to do, the more money you'll make.

I hope this article gives you a bit of an idea of what the world of
real estate investing is like. There's a lot to learn out there, and
all of it is very interesting. Find the area that interests you the
most, then get out there and start talking to home owners. Don't be
discouraged if you're getting turned down a lot - just remember that
when it does pay off, it will pay off big!