The Perks of Investing in Real Estate

Despite what many people believe, becoming a real estate investor can help you earn huge profits, regardless of the current financial crisis. As long as you play your cards right, you can reap huge rewards and achieve the goals that you have set for yourself.

Real Estate Investing (REI) is more advantageous than, let’s say, buying stocks. Although taking chances at the stock market can sometimes yield higher profits, suck a lucky break doesn’t usually last long. As we all know, stock prices are volatile and they go up and down almost everyday. You can score a big jackpot today but lose them all the next morning. With REI, however, you don’t have to be afraid of losing all your investment capital in one day as real estate prices are relatively stable, unlike stock prices.

Another perk of REI is that you can get access to a continuous source of income. Instead of selling a house that you have rehabbed, you can find tenants for the property. This way you can collect rental income every month. And if you put additional amenities into the property, you can collect higher rent.

However, to succeed in the REI business, you have to make sure that all the properties you will invest in will bring you big profits. Otherwise, it will only cause you to waste precious time and lose a lot of money.

So what makes a property profitable? The first answer would be its location. If the property has proximity to major government and commercial establishments or is located in the best school district in a city or county, chances are it can fetch a higher price even before you fix its leaking roof and paint its walls.

Upcoming urban development projects in the area where the property is located can also boost its profitability and marketability. People would naturally relocate to places that can offer them great living arrangements, thus, it would be wise to invest in houses located in such areas.

Another key to success when investing is real estate is to educate yourself about the latest market trends and learn various hints and tips on being a real estate investor. Such strategies can help ensure your survival in this competitive but rewarding industry.

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Have You Considered the Benefit of IRA Investing in Real Estate?

Lets face it… most people who own IRAs, 401Ks or other retirement investments, rely on the expertise of a broker or some kind of custodian to manage their funds. Most of these managers don’t offer IRA investing in real estate as and investment vehicle. Most rely on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. to make up their portfolio. Then at the end of the year, they may be happy to see that they have made a meager gain, and relieved if they haven’t lost anything.

IRA investing in real estate has made some nice gains for the savvy investor and could make your portfolio grow faster than in any other kind of investment.

When I had to make a choice as to where I should roll my 401K money, I had to rely on the recommendation of friends and family. I didn’t know anything about IRA real estate investing, so I chose a guy that a friend of mine told me about. They had almost 1 million dollars at one point, until the stock market plummeted and they saw their portfolio shrink.

Had they chosen IRA real estate investing, they could have turned their investments into millions.

Even so, they were happy with his performance overall. My wife and I met with the guy, liked his personality and decided to work with him.

Unfortunately, the gains we received were minimal. IRA investing in real estate wasn’t even offered by his firm, so most of my portfolio was a mix if stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

I was already working in real estate and started seeing articles on the internet about IRA real estate investing. People were using their IRAs and 401ks to buy income property, hold it for awhile and then sell it for a profit.

This property, if purchased properly, was giving a 12% or better return just from the rental income. Then when they sold it down the road, any profit was added on and the return on investment went through the roof. IRA investing in real estate was making millionaires.

This was when I saw the light and ventured into IRA real estate investing.

I did some research and found that IRA real estate investing was nothing new. It’s just that most people have never been introduced to the idea of using real estate as a vehicle to make their portfolio grow.

There is approximately 7 trillion dollars invested in retirement funds, but only 3% of those funds invested in real estate.

IRA real estate investing may be the holy grail of sound investments. Historically, real estate has always risen in value. Of course, this rise is quicker in some areas, and slower in others.

But overall, most real estate gains value over time. And the savvy investor can take his or her IRA and make a sound investment, with a predetermined gain. They now can have control over how fast their money grows.

But how do we go about using our IRA for real estate investing?

First of all, IRA investing in real estate is totally accepted by the IRS. You can invest in single family homes, apartment buildings, raw land, and even purchase shares of a limited partnership, land trust, c-corp or LLC. Virtually any kind of retirement fund can be used for the purchase of real estate.

Where do you begin? First of all you have to find a custodian that deals with self directed IRAs.
Once you roll your funds into this self directed IRA, you then can tell the custodian of this fund where you want to invest. They will be able to help you in choosing investments that fall within IRA guidelines.

They will be very familiar with helping their clients with IRA real estate investing and have all the paperwork necessary for a smooth fund transfer and purchase of the property.

You don’t want to be a landlord you say? Many properties are available with property managers in place. IRA investing investing in real estate can be passive and turnkey, if you choose the right people to work with. I didn’t want to be a landlord either, but found a program that is allowing me to see some fantastic gains without the headache of being a landlord.

In conclusion….you don’t have to watch your portfolio shrink every month. IRA real estate investing can be your answer to making a change. You now have a way to take charge of your future and watch your investments grow, with a safe investments and calculable gains.

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Learning to Invest In Real Estate While Driving Around

The best way to become successful in real estate investing is to become educated. It is very difficult to enter into a new venture if you have no clue about what you are doing. Do you think you can fly a 747 jumbo jet if you have never taken flying lessons? Investing in real estate is no different. You need to learn as much as you can about buying investment properties before you decide to make your first purchase. The best way to learn is to use your time more judiciously. We all spend time in our cars driving to and from work or taking the kids to soccer practice or going to the grocery store. Why not use this time to build you knowledge of investing?

Everyone recommends buying books about investing and reading them. It is pretty hard to read a book while you are driving a car! Instead of buying the book, buy the book in audible format. You can buy the book in Kindle format and turn on text to read function. If you have the book in audible format, you can listen to it while commuting in your car.

Listening in your car allows you to concentrate more closely on the material and to truly understand the information being presented. If you were reading a book at home, you would have distractions like the TV being played, kids fighting or your spouse asking what you want for dinner. In your car you will not be subjected to these distractions. This allows you to focus completely on learning the material.

Another option to learning while driving is to download podcasts and audible books to your iPod. Most new cars have the option to hook your iPod directly to the radio so that you can listen to it through the car’s speakers. If you do not have this option in your radio, you can purchase a conversion kit that will allow you to listen to your iPod through your car radio. I prefer listening to books through my iPod because it has an option to set the speed at 2x the normal speed. Research has shown that our brains retain information if we hear the information at a faster rate of speed than normal. If you listen to the book at 2x speed, not only will you increase your rate of retention but you will be able to cover the material in less time.

There are many great weekly podcast that discuss investing. You can subscribe to these podcasts and listen to them each and every week while driving in your car. Most of the time they will cover recent news that impact real estate investors. This allows you to keep up with recent trends that will impact your investing activities.

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