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:

1. Regular cash flow. When your money goes into equity, it gets tied up as a down payment and you have to wait to sell the property to get your equity and profit back or you have to wait until the property is stabilized to start getting monthly income. Until then, you're either not receiving anything or you're continuing to invest. As a trust deed investor, you receive a predetermined payment every month and get your money back on a set date.
2. Clean hands. When you invest in trust deeds, you're not going to have to fund a property, do the work to rehabilitate it or find a tenant. You won't have to deal with vendors, inspectors or renters, either. Your only job is to provide up-front capital and receive monthly payments.
3. Healthy returns. While your rate of return can vary, you can usually count on high-single digit or low double-digit interest rates on your loans.
4. Relative security. Done correctly, investing in trust deeds can be relatively safe. If you focus on borrowers that have a good strategy and have a strong personal net worth, you can mitigate a great deal of risk. Requiring a large down payment also protects you by motivating them to pay you off and protect their investment.
5. Frequent (but not too frequent) turnover. Most private mortgages last for 6 months to 3 years, letting your money work for you for a reasonable period of time but also giving you the opportunity to pull it out.
6. Back-end protection. When you invest in trust deeds, the hope is that everything will go well. If it doesn't, your borrower's large down payment means that, if you have to take the property back, there should be enough equity to make you whole.