If you're looking to get access to the best investment properties, you're going to need to get some help from real estate brokers. Not only do they have access to every property on the MLS, but they also frequently have relationships with major lenders and property managers that they can use to give you access to properties before they come on the market. Here are a few strategies that can help you get the brokerage community on your side:

For most people, buying real estate represents a major investment. In exchange for committing large sums of money, you should be able to receive an excellent return over time. On the other hand, if you make the wrong investment, you stand to lose a great deal of money. Here are eight tips to help your investment perform well.

The advantages offered by trust deed investing has finally begun to be recognized by savvy investors. Accredited individuals and companies have found that the combination of above market interest rates with a loan backed by real estate asset offers a superior financial vehicle for their investment dollars. Finding the right deal and the right borrower is not always an easy task, but with the proper due diligence, you can gain the required knowledge.

With the stock market being an unpredictable and illogical roller coaster and government bonds and bank CDs paying next to nothing; Trust Deed investments are looking better than ever. They are paying high yields and monthly payments. However, like any investment, you should do your homework and understand who you’re working with and what you’re buying. The following are my top 10 tips for buying trust deeds:

While prices are definitely up from the bottom set during the Great Recession, great real estate properties abound. You just have to look for them and know how to recognize them when you come across them. With some outside help, you can take advantage of today's market.

Finding a traditional funding source for an unusual, but potentially lucrative, real estate deal is one of the most frustrating tasks around. Banks, credit unions and other traditional lending sources are just not interested in deals that fall outside of their “standard” parameters. Instead, savvy real estate investors turn to knowledgeable and experienced lenders who can understand a complicated investment deal, namely, private money lenders. 

Distressed and vacant properties frequently provide the best return on investment relative to other, more stabilized, properties. Instead of making your money through slowly increasing rents and net operating incomes, you earn profit by buying at a good price, rehabilitating it and selling it at a higher price. Leverage, like that provided by hard money loans, increases your returns and makes these potentially lucrative investments even more valuable.

There are literally thousands of real estate deals available across the United States and they come in every size, shape and variety. Finding the one that offers the right reward to risk ratio can be a daunting challenge but there are definitely real estate deals that produce outsized returns versus the risk for the savvy and patient investor. Still, not all lenders recognize an excellent investment and investors are confronted with another problem, finding reliable and affordable real estate investment loans.