I know you… you have been thinking about getting into this game of real estate, but you were held back because you just didn’t know how to get funding. You’re not the only one, Here’s a possible solution… the money may already be sitting in your IRA or 401K retirement account.

You’re probably asking yourself how that can happen. Not to worry, because there is a simple solution called a self directed IRA (or 401K). Using one of these very special accounts, you can direct your money into whatever kind of investment you like, even real estate.

You better believe there are plenty of excellent reasons to invest this way, not least of which is the fact that income taxes on the money are deferred until retirement. Your tax rate will probably be lower then, and so your money will grow fast now, AND last longer when you need it.

Next, self-directed IRA or 401K investing allows you the freedom to invest in something you are familiar with. Unlike the every day mutual funds, stocks, and cash funds most IRA and 401K money is invested in, you can actually invest in real estate in towns and neighborhoods you are familiar with.

There are rules that must be followed however. The good news is that the trustee you keep your self-directed account with will understand these rules, and they will be able to properly advise you as you go. One very important rule is that the IRA or 401K owns the real estate, not the individual investor.

This rule can increase your costs and aggravation a little, because you can’t just pay for things out of your own checkbook, or deposit rents received into your own account. It all has to go through the IRA or 401K, and that means you will need to pay fees to the account manager /trustee. Not convenient, but not a deal breaker either.

Just like all other retirement accounts, you could lose all your money. This is also something you should know. Real estate is a pretty safe investment, but it’s not guaranteed. However, since you will be the one saying where your money goes, you’ll be able to keep a firm hand on the tiller.

Lastly, think carefully about whether or not self directed IRA or 401K investing in real estate is right for you. It’s simple to put in place, and it just may be the vehicle you have been searching for. Should you really allow some anonymous money manager in some distant city to control YOUR retirement funds?

There’s a great deal of public angst over the “credit crisis” and the housing bust. Of course you hear of the usual culprits (and they certainly were culprits!): predatory lenders, not enough regulatory oversight to protect homebuyers, and greedy financial institutions. But before forming our modern versions of possies and rounding up the perpetrators, let’s dig a little deeper and see how this kind of catastrophe can be prevented in the future.

The culprits can be categorized into three groups: local regulators, federal policymakers, and the stewards of our monetary policy. The first are one of the chief instigators of wildly varying local housing markets. There’s a reason San Francisco and Los Angeles real estate increased at multiples of the rates from tamer, but actually higher growth, markets such as Houston or North Carolina. Local, city, and state regulators determine the constraints of new developement through land use regulations. These restrict new supply from freely entering the market to offset increasing demand.

Two examples show how federal policy affects housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pushed its social engineering agenda onto the two now-nationalized mortgage institutions, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The agenda: increase homeownership amongst low-income families. The solution: force Fannie and Freddie to increase the amount of subprime mortgages in their portfolios. The result is evident in that many of these subprime borrowers proved unable to afford the homes they were encouraged to buy. There are many federal policy influences to housing, including special tax treatment to encourage homeownership, and now the Environmental Protections Agency’s (EPA) proposals to link climate regulation with land use restrictions.

Finally, we cannot escape monetary policy. It is the Federal Reserve that controls prices for money through various tools that affect interest rates. After 9/11 Alan Greenspan dropped the federal funds rate to near-zero, which was likely in the negative real interest rate territory. He kept rates in this territory for a sustained period of time, only slowly and very incrementally raising them through the peak of the housing boom. Low rates signal the market to borrow borrow borrow. Negative real rates provide negative incentive to save; the omnipotent, omniscient Federal Reserve board of governors sits on the same pedistal of power that Kremlin Communists used to perch whilst dictating grain prices and pretty much everything else in their defunct economy.

The big takeaway is that government must bear, at a minimum, some of the blame for the unprecedented explosion in housing prices and warped perception of risk that it involved. Rather than seek relief in the form of MORE government involvement, we ought to consider how we can reduce the regulations and bad policies that led to the speculative bubble. From an individual perspective, understanding how regulations and policies affect markets enables one to exploit the resulting opportunities. If you can remember that more regulation almost always means higher prices, then you will do fine!

Are you thinking of investing in real estate? There is a lot of money involved in property investment so not only is there money to be made but if you’re not informed then you can lose a lot. Not only do you need access to money but there is hard work and research involved in making money in the real estate business. If you have the drive then you can find buying, renovating and reselling or renting property for a profit enjoyable and rewarding. Here are some tips to acquiring property for resale or renting.

Look for a property in the best location you can afford. The best rental and resale family homes should be close to public schools and shopping centers. There should also be access to freeways and public transportation, especially in urban areas. Contact the local police department or use tools online to find out the crime rate in the neighborhood.

Once you have done your market research and decided on possible properties, you’ll need to know as much as possible about each prospective property. While visiting the property look carefully for anything that will need to be replaced or repaired. Look for repairs that can be hidden and costly such as cracked hardwood floors, plumbing, mildew and electrical problems. Take notes and write these issues down so you can review them later.

Once you have done your own inspection and decided that a property looks like a possible investment, hire a professional inspector. Make sure to find a reputable and reliable inspector even if you have to spend more money. They will tell you what needs to be repaired, what should be repaired, and what work will need to be done in the future.

Don’t get too attached to a property. Remember, your goal is too make money on the home. Keeping that in mind will help put things in perspective and help you not to make any hasty decisions. No matter how nice you find the property, don’t be afraid to walk away from a sale.

Use professionals to help you before you decide to buy a property. An appraiser will help you determine the value of the real estate and how much it will be worth with renovations. You will also need to figure out how much renovations will cost to determine if a profit is possible.

Have your finances in order before mking an offer. Financial aid is available and should be used especially if you don’t have enough capital to invest in something that will turn a profit. Be careful though; a long term loan (such as 30 years) may not pay off if you’ll be selling it in the short term. Use an accountant if you’re unsure of the number crunching.

After you’ve completed the buying and selling of your first property you will be on your way to making real estate investment a hobby and a business.

Many people think that they can make a fortune by investing in real estate, however if you don’t know what you’re doing then it could be a very expensive lesson. Before you decide to try your hand at investing in property there are some things that you need to learn. This business requires a lot of long hard work, and access to plenty of money. If you do it right then you can make a considerable amount of money.

It’s important to know as much as you can about this subject before you start spending any of your money. When you are deciding which property to buy you should pay special attention to anything which needs renovating or repairing. It’s a good idea to take a notepad and pen with you so that you can remember any potential problems.

Make sure you thoroughly inspect the house by flushing all of the toilets, turning on the lights, checking the floorboards, inspecting the walls and ceilings for cracks. Try to check out every potential problem so that nothing catches you by surprise. Once you have decided on the house that you want to buy you should hire a house inspector to check it out before parting with your cash. This will give you a clear idea of how much money you will need to spend on renovating and repairing your property.

Make sure you also pay attention to the market which you are buying the home in. Is there a school close to it? Is it within easy reach of the freeway? Also check out the local crime rates and find how well houses sell in this area whether its a mansion in Hollywood or a cheap holiday villa in Spain.

When buying homes for an investment you cannot be sentimental, this will weaken your position. You want to buy the house for as low a price possible, if you’ve fallen in love with it and the owner realizes then they may stick out for more money. If you can play a good game of poker, then you will do very well! Just because you love a house, it does not mean that it will be any easier to sell.

If you can’t afford to buy the property personally then you can take out a loan to cover the cost. This will work in exactly the same way as if you are buying a home to live in. However if you do this then you need to be aware of the loan costs. If you take out a loan which lasts for 30 years is it possible to pay it off in full when you sell it and have a large profit? Many loans will have a penalty if you pay the loan off early. You don’t want to lose money, so you need to be careful when borrowing money to fund your home property investment business.

The real estate market has dropped out. Prices are falling around your ears. So does this mean that you should get out of property investing? No this is actually a great opportunity to increase your portfolio. When you are buy real estate it does not really matter where the market is, unless you are considering selling in the short term. If you are holding long term then you have to accept the market fluctuations if you can buy during a low period of a cycle that is the “golden hour” in real estate…but sometimes it is hard to find that hour on your watch.

Now that the market is experiencing a downturn it is a great time to be buying. Just look at the foreclosure lists. You have a massive inventory to choose from and most are at below market value. Go for positive cash flow whenever you can. In other words make sure your rental income equals or exceeds your outgoing including mortgage repayments. If you have other income you may be able to stand an extra $100 or more per month to top off the mortgage but try to avoid it.

Ok we all know that in a strong market, when the prices are going up, our property value also climbs. However now, in a slower and declining market you need to change your focus to hold for a longer period. We are looking at a few years before a more friendly market for investors shows up on the horizon.

Several investors that started during the “boom” now have to change how they are thinking about investing. This is the time when we separate “those who can from those who got lucky and made a few bucks”. Now is when the long term hold plans must start becoming the focus. This is a business. You need to do the math. Will your income from your investment cover the expenses/new mortgage?

Having said all that, we cannot avoid the fact that with good research and due diligence the depressed market presents investors with the GREAT opportunities to build a portfolio of properties for long term gains.

There are times in your life when you have to make decisions that others may question you on in order to change your future.

That is the case with investors who want to build a rental portfolio or invest in real estate but their market is so crazy that a 2/1 shack is 200k or the taxes are so high that they cannot get a positive cash flow. So what do you do?

Search for properties in another area or even another state, which are affordable and give you positive cash flow.

There are a lot of the areas that the news never talks about because they don’t have 50 percent appreciation in a year. They just steadily grow at a measly 3 to 5 percent, and guess what When the Bubble burst they also didn’t have 50% depreciation in a year. In fact, they just hang out and many people just don’t even notice.

So what are the keys to finding a stable area that won’t blow up or down? Here are 7 steps to finding out your area properties to invest in.

1. Look for areas that have a strong rental market. Meaning an area where a good majority of houses are owned by investors who are renting property. This will tell you that the taxes are low and the rent rates are high enough to attract investors who want cash flow.

2. Find out where other out of state investors are buying in. Google is one way that comes to mind. Craigslist.com is also a very good source. In fact I think it is one of the best sources to find great deals.

3. When you find the area, talk to people there about the markets overall appreciation. Find a market that is quite boring, one where no one really ever understood all of the hype about the real estate bubble because it wasn’t happening there.

4. Once you find the area that other out of state buyers are buying in, the work begins. You are not there, so someone will have to do your work for you. And the best way to find the local deals is to find the local wholesaler!

5. Like a spy would find out intelligence. They go to the guy who is connected and who is the big dog dealer around and try to get them on your side. That is what you do to find the best deals in the area.

6. Find out who are the hard moneylenders in the area. They will be friendly with the local wholesalers. Find the moneylenders, and you will find the best deal finders. They will be the ones finding deals and bringing buyers who need to borrow the money. Easy - just like a spy!

7. Talk to the wholesaler in your area. It’s less work and much easier than working with realtors. Be sure you check and ask around, make sure he or she is the big dog, so to speak, running the volume-based business. They mark the deals up just a few thousand and move them so they can keep buying more properties. Besides, the local wholesaler is the one who gets all the best deals anyway. The one who is going to have all the relationships with the realtors anyway and get the 1st call on the deals.

Overall the local wholesalers for the work they do - looking at hundreds of houses and making hundreds of offers to get their deals - are more than worth the measly mark up they make. Let them tell you who the best property mangers and contractors are, and they will help you get properties - quality properties - faster, so you can achieve your investing goals.

Then it is time to get to work and do some deals, build your cash flow, and take charge of your future. Be Bold and Courageous, you won’t regret it!

To be successful in the rental house business I have a few tips for you. First you need to do some research on where rental homes are needed.

Gather information. Find out what areas need housing, areas where there is a lot of businesses in that city. Make sure it is a booming area, not an area where many manufacturing companies are closing and people are losing their jobs. You don’t want to invest in the area from where the families wanting to move out and looking elsewhere for employment. Also make sure it is a safe area for people to raise their family. No one wants to move into an area where risks are involved. The other important detail is to make sure that the area is getting a high deal on rent. You don’t want to be paying for a house that is going to generate low rent; when you are trying to make money that would make no sense. The area has to have houses that are inexpensive but with relatively higher rent.

In order to accomplish the above, the best you can do is to find someone who can direct you in the right market. Find a person who can teach you and put you on the items you need to focus on, just the right person who is successful in the business and knows what he or she is doing. Do not depend solely on a television ad or an online ad - you will read a lot of different information on rental housing and wholesaling real estate. Some information is good to know and some is fluff. You need to be taught by a mentor who can show you each step you need to take in the correct manner.

There is a lot of money to be made in rental houses. Once you have done the above-mentioned steps, purchase the house. Next you will need a contractor to check the house to make sure everything is up to par. Replace and fix things as inexpensively as you can. Yet you want to establish a good relationship with people and keep a good business reputation. If you are renting out homes that are unsafe or not kept up that will bring your reputation down in an instant. Keep a good reputation and you will see the advantages. One example is if a renter has to move out he or she may even find a new renter to fill the house.

By buying your first rental property based on knowledge and research, you will be making extra income, which will allow you to purchase more rental properties. The idea is to keep repeating the step. In the beginning the work is hard, but if you stay determined the steps get easier and easier. You will find yourself very successful in dealing with rental houses very quickly.

If someone drops you in a new city and tells you to find a good real estate deal in about 3 hours, here is what you should do.

The gurus will tell you to do a lot of marketing and make a bunch of offers on houses. But you want to find a deal fast, so the first thing I would do is find the local wholesaler.

Not just any wholesaler, because there will probably be several if you are trying to invest in a large market. What I would look for is the Big dog wholesaler. The one who is selling more properties than anyone else. Look for the wholesalers who are buying and selling 5-10 properties a month. They will be true real estate wholesalers.

A true wholesaler marks up a deal a few thousand dollars and moves on to the next deal. Unlike many courses and real estate gurus who talk of making 10, 20 or even 50k on a deal. They are not true wholesalers. They are flippers.

Flippers make home runs. They find a property and mark it up a lot and make a killing one deal. These will be the guys that do only one or two deals a month.

The true wholesalers will only make a little on each deal and therefore will have buyers repeatedly buying from them because they know they are getting the best deals.

I am one of the big dog wholesalers in my area and, after thinking about how I do business, I realized that before I became a wholesaler I spent a bunch of time and money learning how to find deals. It does pay off if you want to be a wholesaler. But if you are just trying to flip a deal or build a rental portfolio it really does not make sense. In my opinion, devoting a lot of time and money to find real estate deals in this case would be a waste of time. You simply will not be able to find better deals than me.

Use the local wholesaler if you want to find great deals super fast. He or she will be like a buyer on your staff who is doing all the legwork for you. By using such expertise you will save time and money, and it is more than worth the mark up you will pay.

Where do you go to buy something at lower a price? Wal-Mart, Target, all of these stores are actually large wholesalers. They buy in bulk and then pass the savings on to the consumer. That is what the local wholesaler does in your real estate investing.

Taxes are a necessary evil in our society, and for many it seems natural to grouse about having to pay a large percentage of our earnings to the government while those who have more money seem to be bearing less of the burden than they ought. It’s certainly disheartening that it works this way– as the fortunate shirk their obligations through legal loopholes, the rest have to pick up their slack. It’s frustrating and unfair, and there’s no question that many of the complaints against the upper class are quite legitimate.

Well, the fact is, no amount of grumbling and complaining is going to make the powers that be suddenly make things fair for you. This is because of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold, makes the rules.” Chances are, they are going to make the rules in their favor. They’re going to keep all the good tax breaks to themselves. They are going to tell you there just isn’t enough money to go around, even as you watch so many people drive around in so many expensive cars and eat in so many posh restaurants. Even politicians who promise tax breaks to the downtrodden masses– even the ones who are sincere in their desire to help the average working stiff– are limited in their ability to affect the system.

That’s why you are going to have to take action. Don’t be one of the downtrodden masses. If you want more money, you are going to have to go get it yourself. And yes, you too can get more money in the form of tax breaks.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” books, makes the sensible suggestion that those who are not rich but would like to be should watch what the rich do, and then do the same. You don’t really need to watch too closely, however, to learn the open secret of the wealthy– that secret is real estate.

In his book “Cash Flow Quadrant,” Kiyosaki says “One of the reasons I chose to work predominantly in the B and I quadrants are the tax advantages,” The aforementioned “quadrant” is an invention of “Rich Dad,” a diagram consisting on a square divided into quarters, each representing the different ways in which different people relate to money. It’s an unavoidable fact that an individual’s personal philosophy and perspective on the world will affect the way in which he or she behaves with money, and this behavior will,, in turn, decide his or her ultimate financial success or failure.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, the real money is in the business and investment quadrants of the Cash Flow Quadrant.

It’s best to take an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” attitude towards the wealthy– there’s no way you’re ever going to beat them, so the next best thing is to become one of them. Know also that the rich aren’t simply lucky; if you follow the examples set by rich people, you can become one of them, and you can get the tax breaks that they are able to get.

The path to riches is actually very simple; all you’ve got to do is start investing, or join the ‘I’ quadrant. If you have a high-paying job, you may be able to do this without leaving the ‘E’ (employee) or ‘S’ (self-employed) quadrants, but Robert Kiyosaki advises that you move into the ‘B’ or business quadrant, devising a system that will make you money regardless of whether you are putting time into it or not.

At the end of the day, those who invest in real estate, regardless of the type of property, are the ones who manage to join the ranks of the rich.

Yes, in my area there are several investors that make much money and if you asked them what their secret is to finding all their deals they will surprise you by saying they don’t know how to find the deals.

What they will tell you is they let the local wholesaler find them. There are quite a few investors in my area that buy from me (I am the wholesaler) over and over again. Sometimes I think I am missing out when I hear about all the money they are making on the deals that I sell them; but that is just the way it is.

These lucky investors realized that I didn’t feel comfortable selling properties to home owners, and they figured out that I had no desire to make a huge profit on a deal. I just wanted to make a few thousand and do that many times every month.

Most of those investors figured out that in order for me to eat, I had to move properties. Unlike them, my full time job is buying and selling houses. They had jobs so they did not have the time to find the deals that I brought to them.

Briefly, if you want to make a bunch of money in real estate yet you don’t have the time to find the deals, go to the guy who is selling a dozen properties a month and doing volume business. If you don’t, you will find out that you will save maybe a few thousand bucks, but the time it will take you will not be worth it.