Do you want to invest in property but want to avoid the hassle involved? If YES, here are 20 guaranteed ways to invest in real estate without buying properties.
Real estate investment is one of the most lucrative businesses anyone can invest in. Investing in real estate gives you a guaranteed return on your investment because the value of real estate always appreciates except in very rare cases. Real estate investment can also serve as a hedge against inflation and provides you with some tax benefits.
Unfortunately, not every investor is able to afford the huge capital requirements for investing in real estate. If you don’t have enough capital and you still wish to invest in real estate, there are a number of ways to go about it:
20 Ways to Invest in Real Estate Without Buying Properties
1. Invest in a Real Estate Company: You can buy stocks from a real estate focused company. There are some companies that focus on building houses, malls, office spaces and rent or resell them for a profit. You can invest in such companies and earn dividends from their profits. NASDAQ for instance, is a company that is based in China and has a subsidiary that focuses on developing high-scale real estate properties in the country. You can start with investing in NASDAQ.
2. Invest in Real Estate Trust Accounts: Another way to invest in real estate without owning property is to invest in a company that owns and manages real estate. These are not real estate companies but investment managers with a focus on real estate. You can invest in a managed real estate portfolio, and continue to grow your portfolio with them.
3. Invest in Private Equity Real Estate Funds: Basically, how this type of investment operates is that funds would be pulled from qualified or institutional investors, then a management team would be elected to deploy the assets and invest in lucrative real estate opportunities in the market. You can own a significant portion of a property without paying for the whole property by investing in private equity real estate funds.
4. Invest in Online Real Estate Platforms: There are a number of online portals that allow qualified investors to invest in real estate without having to pay broker or fund manager fees. Some of the most popular online real estate platforms include RealtyShares, Fundrise, and Realty Mogul.
5. Invest in Home Building: Real estate is not just about buying building property, there are some industries whose operations are directly related to the real estate industry and are affected by any factors affecting the real estate industry. If you don’t have the funds to buy a property, you can start a home building business; you can either become a building contractor or sell/rent building supplies to building contractors. This requires less capital investment but it is also very profitable.
6. Join Airbnb: Airbnb is a startup that allows you rent your home to tourists and visitors to your city for a small fee. Airbnb’s goal is to help people who are visiting another city to avoid paying exorbitant hotel fees by getting temporary accommodation in the homes of other people who have spaces to share, or are also out of town during the period of the visit. You can make good amounts of money from renting your space out to other people for short stays on Airbnb.
7. Invest in Real Estate Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding is a relatively new investment strategy. If you qualify, you can join hundreds or thousands of other investors to invest in a real estate property and invest as little as $1,000. There is no need for accreditation for this type of investment, and you are able to invest very minimal amounts.
8. Start a House Flipping Business: You can also consider starting a home flipping business. Basically, you have to look for low-priced homes, buy them, refurbish them to impressive standards, and then resell them.
9. Represent Home Buyers: You can earn good commission from helping prospective home buyers search for properties to buy or rent.
10. Represent Home Sellers: Another way to make money from real estate without buying property is to represent home sellers. You can make money from helping people sell their homes, or find tenants to rent it from them.
11. Become a Property Manager: Owners of real estate properties are sometimes too busy to manage the properties themselves. They often hire property managers that they pay to manage the properties on their behalf in exchange for some fees. You can earn a lot of money from managing multiple properties on behalf of their owners.
12. Invest in Non-Performing Notes: Non-performing notes are simply mortgages whose borrowers are behind on payments. Rather than foreclosing the properties and selling them to another buyer, the lender may choose to sell the non-performing mortgages to investors at discounted rates so that the investor can sell the house to another buyer for profit. This type of investment can be very risky because you might have to go through some legal processes before you can get the property foreclosed so that you can get a clear title.
13. Invest in Wholesaling Houses: If you don’t have enough capital to invest in real estate, you can invest in wholesaling houses. You would have to search for homes that are undervalued, and put them under contract. You will add contingencies to the contracts that specify that you would assign the contracts to other buyers within a short period of time. You would now go on to look for buyers who can afford to pay a little bit more than the price you agreed to in the contract and keep the difference as profit upon closing the contract. This way, you can sell real estate without using your money to invest.
14. Set up a Real Estate Brokerage Company: You can set up a real estate brokerage and hire people to work for you as real estate agents and earn half of each agent’s commission as income for your business. However, you would need a license for this as well as software and resources to train the agents working with you, and keep them working efficiently.
15. Lease Commercial Real Estate and Rent it Out: You can enter into a long lease contract for a commercial property, and then look for people who can rent the space and have them pay a little bit more than you paid lease as monthly or yearly rent.
16. Start a Lead Generation Business: Realtors are always looking for sales leads for their business. You can start a business that helps them get and qualify leads. You can also take it a step further and set up a service that helps realtors connect with their leads. This is another way to tap into the real estate boom without necessarily buying a house.
17. Start a Home Inspecting Business: People looking to buy properties always need the services of home inspectors to help them investigate the house and see if there are any red flags or reasons why they shouldn’t purchase the property. Home inspectors command premium rates especially when there is a rise in the real estate market.
18. Become a Real Estate Appraiser: Basically, what real estate appraisers do is to help determine the financial value of a property. Just like home inspectors, real estate appraisers earn good money.
19. Become a Hard Money Lender: As a hard money lender, you can offer loans to short-term real estate investors and earn high returns without taking too much risk because the loans would be backed by physical properties so that if the lender defaults, you are still able to recover your investments by selling or flipping the property.
20. Connect Homeowners to Contractors: Lastly, you can benefit from the real estate industry by setting up a business that connects homeowners to contractors who can carry out building and reconstruction services on their homes. You can earn a lot of commission, and take advantage of the real estate boom from offering this type of service.