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Real estate investment clubs are one of the most easily accessible sources for property investment information. With nationwide and worldwide chapters, you can easily connect with other real estate investors, members-only seminars and events and attend regular meetings with other like-minded individuals. To locate a real estate investment club near you, visit the website for the National Real Estate Investors Association.
Not only are real estate investment clubs an excellent source for networking and information on property investing, they are also something that you should research thoroughly. If they require you to pay exorbitant membership fees or only allow investing in properties they represent, it's best to move on and look elsewhere for a better group. -
It's wise to keep your fingers on the pulse of the property investment marketplace as well as the real estate industry as a whole. There are several websites and blogs that allow you to do this with ease.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) publishes regular reports on their perspectives and research on the real estate markets. All reports are available to the general public and are free of charge.
Other sites to note are Inman News and the Wall Street Journal's Developments Blog. -
There are many ways to invest in property. Knowing the available venues will help you decide what you want to research more fully for your personal investment strategy.
Hard Assets: Owning actual property as a sole or partial owner. This is also known as investment property and includes commercial, residential and land real estate.
Hard Money Lending: Another way to invest in property, but from the lending side. You can be a private mortgage lender and enjoy property investment from the debt side.
Funds: REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and TIC (Tenant-in-Common) funds are two ways to invest in a property or real estate. -
The benefits to investing in property and real estate as a whole are plentiful. Real estate is considered a non-correlated asset, which means that its performance is not linked to the performance of the stock and bond markets. This means you can diversify your investment portfolio and mitigate risk to some extent if you opt to invest in property and other forms of real estate investing.
Many investors also enjoy the long-term cash flow potential that property investment provides. Rental property in a well-researched area can provide years of steady cash flow and also benefit from property appreciation when recouped at eventual sale.
Other property investors prefer a rehab approach, purchasing properties in need of repair at a discount to fair market value and then selling the properties at a profit. This is often referred to as fix-and-flip.
As well, if you choose to invest in property in your local community, many enjoy the fact that it's an investment they can see, drive by and touch. -
As with any type of investing, property as an investment has risks. When investing from the equity side (i.e. as a holder of rental property or investor in a real estate fund), you can experience depreciation of your asset. When investing from the debt side, you can be subject to borrower default and then have to endure the process of foreclosing and expenses associated with that burden.
Prior to investing in any property, it's best to connect with an investment-savvy real estate professional and property management firm (if considering the acquisition of rental property). There is no substitute for proper due diligence and your real estate portfolio will only thank you when you take the time to research investment property the right way.
