When you think of investing, you probably think of stocks and bonds. These are both popular investment venues, but there are several others such as real estate. Real estate is land and everything attached to it. If you own a home on a quarter acre of land, you own real estate. This means you have an investment in real estate.
How do you invest in real estate?
Investing in real estate is much different and much more complicated than investing in stocks or bonds. You can’t just open up a brokerage account and purchase through them, unless you are buying some type of fund that invests in real estate.
Owning your own home should be your first investment in real estate. If you want to go further, there are many different ways, more than I can describe in one article. You could buy a home or apartment building and rent out. You could even own an office building and rent out. You could buy foreclosed homes and flip them (sell them for a higher price). You can buy a large chunk of land and sell it in broken up pieces. There are countless more ways to go about it.
Should you invest in real estate?
Real estate investing is complicated and takes a bit of a commitment. Usually, you need to have a substantial amount of money to invest, and you need to be able and willing to put in a good amount of time.
Some people make a lot of money investing in real estate. You’ve probably seen infomercials on television that go on and on about how easy it is to become a multimillionaire fast with real estate investing. Don’t let them sucker you in. It isn’t as easy as they say.
First, you need to be willing to put in the time. You need to put in the time to learn what you are doing and then to execute. If you are looking for a way to invest some extra cash easily, or are looking to start investing for retirement, real estate investing is not the way to go.
You will also need quite a bit of time and money to start out. It will be very hard to get anything substantial with a small amount of seed money. Also, you need to have the extra time. Investing in real estate will turn into a part time job. If you don’t have this kind of time, look elsewhere.
Finally, if you have the time, are willing to do your research and learn, have some money to get started, and really want to succeed in real estate investing, look into it and give it a try. It just might be what’s right for you!