Investing in real estate can be an excellent way to use your money. You might think that the only way to successfully invest in real estate is to "get your hands dirty" and buy rehab properties. However, you can also invest in real estate without ever buying a piece of property yourself.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the recovering California real estate market is to invest in rehab properties. You can still buy these properties cheaply, do some work to put them into turnkey condition, then profit from selling them to a different class of buyer. Furthermore, thanks to the ready availability of private money lenders, you can do your rehabs with borrowed money, making your potential returns even higher.

Not everyone can be a successful real estate investor. To turn property opportunities into profit, you will need to have the right disposition as well as having the right tools available to you. 

In today's dynamic market, real estate investors don't have to buy properties hoping that, some day, they'll get their money back. One to four unit buildings in California offer the opportunity for significant appreciation in a relatively short period of time. The secret is to buy the property right, and there are two ways to do it.