It almost goes without saying that real estate is an excellent investment. But many property investors miss an entire class of opportunities. Many of them focus exclusively on the equity side of the business. By doing this, though, they're ignoring where the money actually sits in real estate -- on the debt side. You can participate in this part of the market by being a trust deed investor and making loans secured by trust deeds. Here are some of the benefits of trust deed investing:

The whole concept of hard money loans just sounds risky, doesn't it? After all, you're dealing with borrowers that usually come to you because they can't get a bank loan, and if a bank won't work with them, they must be a bad risk. While there's a kernel of truth in this argument, it also ignores a larger truth. 

Many fledgling real estate investors choose to start off small by investing in a single-family home instead of a multi-family or apartment property. In these deals, the investment is smaller, the potential problems seem more manageable and the downside is significantly lessened.

Figuring out how to flip a house today is a much easier process than in the past. After all, buyers are back in many markets and prices are either stable or, in many places, increasing. However, with prices going up and debt still hard to source, the market is not without challenges. Here is a process that can help you figure out not only how to flip a house but also choose which one to flip.

“Buy low, sell high” is one of those maxims that conceal a whole host of problems for an investor. While the actual words seem simple enough to understand and implement, the practicality of the advice is far from evident especially if one is interested in real estate as an investment. In short, real estate investing can be a difficult business for the uninitiated.

Getting your California Real Estate Broker License is more than just prestigious. It also opens up more opportunities for you. Not only can you do real estate on your own and even hire your own agents, but you can conduct additional types of business. For example, your license will enable you to get involved in financing transactions, including the sale or purchase of notes secured by first trust deeds. To start taking advantage of these opportunities, though, you'll need to pass your exam. Here are six tips to help you pass.

Every savvy investor should understand the inverse relationship that exists between the emerging risk of a deal and its potential reward. It is neither wise to downplay the negatives nor overstate the positives. Instead a prudent approach and an understanding of one’s risk tolerance should inform the deal.

Finding affordable and readily available investment funds for real estate deals can be a daunting and unrewarding task. The vast majority of traditional lending institutions are bound by government regulations and internal oversight committees.

These days, the newspapers, online financial forums and other news outlets are full of stories about Ponzi schemes, fake investment deals and other sorts of scams. While many of the schemes involved high-tech companies or convoluted financial vehicles, the real estate world was not immune and many investors lost sizable amounts of money to real estate investment scams. 

When you're looking to finance a real estate investment, you have two choices for your leverage. You can go to a bank, or you can go to private real estate lenders. The two types of lenders have very different approaches to lending, and both can be a good fit depending on what you're trying to do.