Introduction,Real,Estate,Inves DIY An Introduction to Real Estate Investing

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

There are a great many books and web sites devoted to real estateinvesting out there, but most of them concentrate on one specific areaof investing. It's often hard to find a general description of realestate investing, one that lists the various real estate investingstrategies and how to get started. That's what this article will setout to do.Before beginning, you must understand that real estate investing isnot a get rich quick scheme. Real estate investing can, and will,make you wealthy, but it certainly won't happen overnight and it willrequire work. As you perfect your technique and gain experience, theamount of work needed to gain a lot of money will reduce, but it willtake effort and persistance to make it there.If you're completely new to real estate investing then the only sortof investing strategy you're likely aware of is rental properties.Landlording has been around since there have been houses and people torent them to, and it will continue to be a wealth builder. In fact,most of the 'no money down' real estate strategies you hear aboutstill include rentals as part of their plan. Still, there are otherways 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 arelatively short period of time. Most rehabbers won't even look at aproperty unless they can make at least $20,000 of profit, and this isusually within 3-4 months time. Rehabbers tend to be experiencedinvestors with available money, or have partners who help provide anyextra cash required.But if you're just starting out you likely won't have access to largeamounts of money. One way to get involved in this area of real estateinvesting without needing any money at all is to 'flip' houses tothese rehabbers. What this entails is you going out and finding thesefixer-uppers, noting all the work required to fix the place up. Youthen place a low offer in to the owner, taking into account the fix upprice and some built in profit. Once you have the house undercontract you then flip it to a rehabber for a small fee. This canresult in several thousand dollars for you, without you having tospend a dime. 'Flipping' properties can be a great way to start yourreal estate investing career.Another 'no money down' technique that's popular on the late nightinfomercials is called 'lease optioning'. This is basically a rent toown strategy that allows you to control a property without ever takingownership of it. It's a slightly more complicated strategy thatwarrents its own article, but it does allow you to make money inseveral different ways, each without ever having to spend any of yourown money. If you're not put off by longer term investments thenlease options are definately worth more research.There are other strategies that involve foreclosures and getting thehome owner to sign the deed over to you, but for now I'd suggestlearning more about flipping and lease options as entry-level realestate investing strategies.How do you find properties that would make good real estateinvestments? Again, an entire article can be devoted to that, butthere are basically two ways: you go looking for them, or you get themto come to you. The first way involves reading the newspaperclassifieds and scanning the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This iswhere having a great real estate agent is a must - they can get youmore details on homes than you can view on the mls website, and canoften let you know of great deals before they even become available tothe general public.Having home owners contact you means setting up an advertisingcampaign. This can involve placing ads in the newspaper, placingbandit signs at strategic locations around town, starting a directmail campaign, etc. There are many ways to let people know thatthere's a new real estate investor in town, and it would be in yourbest 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, orboth, they key is to be persistant. Real estate investing is anumbers game - most of the time you won't be able to make the dealwork, but every time you do it translates into thousands of dollarsfor you. The more owners you talk to, the more deals you'll be ableto do, the more money you'll make.I hope this article gives you a bit of an idea of what the world ofreal estate investing is like. There's a lot to learn out there, andall of it is very interesting. Find the area that interests you themost, then get out there and start talking to home owners. Don't bediscouraged if you're getting turned down a lot - just remember thatwhen it does pay off, it will pay off big! Article Tags: Real Estate Investing, Real Estate, Estate Investing