There are a couple of ways to invest in real estate on a budget. Many investors budget their investments to certain amount each month, but they find it difficult to achieve this in the real estate industry. This is mainly because we have been taught that you should purchase real estate then sell it to make a profit. There are other methods for investing in real estate which can accommodate a monthly budgeting plan.
Making use of investment groups is a good way too put your real estate investing on a monthly budget. This type of investing pools together funds from many different sources to invest in real estate as a whole. There are branches of investment groups in nearly every city in the US. You can find them in your local phone directory and several are even listed online.
Another real estate investment tool during this recession that is very easy to use is an investment fund or real estate investment trust (REIT). These are publicly traded funds that use real estate as their sole or primary investment strategy. You can purchase them just as you do any other stock and they are traded the same as well. A good stock broker can help you locate these investments. You can also do a little online research to find several of them on your own.
You can become private money lender who specializes in real estate investments. This type of investor usually makes their profit in a manner similar to that of banks and mortgage lenders. Advertising your service is a good way to find real estate investors for this type of loan. You lend the money to an investor in exchange for earned interest on the loan. There are many variables you can use with this method. For instance you can make an agreement with the other party to include you in all or part of the proceeds from the investment. This is sometimes a better idea if you are lending the funds to someone who is planning to flip the property. Doing this independently gives you the flexibility to make your own pay off dates and interest charges. When making independent loans it is always wise to seek the advice of an attorney when writing your loan contracts.
Another way to lend private money for real estate is to use one of the peer to peer lending groups. These are found online by doing a simple search. They allow you to lend in increments that fit into your budget and they make the lending process very easy to manage and control. This gives you more control with your budgeting because you decide how much you want to lend each person. They are programs that let you invest your money using a method that is similar to investing groups. You have the ability to lend money to several different borrowers to spread out your risk which is also a good benefit. These sites give you the advantage of pre-qualifying the borrower. The fact that they make it easy to find several borrowers in one location which makes tracking and managing your investments much easier.