For real estate investors, pre-foreclosure or short sale listings are a potential gold mine. The owners of these homes are often in serious default and they desperately need to sell fast. Homes that fit this category are plentiful and a savvy investor can score some incredible deals. Here are some tips for investors on how to find and navigate a short sale.

Probate properties are the existing real estate assets of a larger estate that must be sold off to pay the deceased person's debt or distributed among the closest living relatives, depending on specific state laws. In most cases, real estate goes into probate court if the deceased died without a will designating who would get what.

Real estate investment is an exciting field, with many opportunities to gain a hefty profit. However, as with all transactions, there are many risks involved. Careful consideration of all details will help you make profitable investments and avoid making potentially disastrous decisions. In particular, take note of the 5 most common mistakes real estate investors make:

While many real estate investors like to rely on their own intuition and experience, it is always a good idea to get a second opinion when buying a property. For this task, there is no one more qualified than a reputable real estate appraiser. Equipped with the right tools and expertise, they can confirm or negate your impression of a property. Here is what they typically look for when determining the value of a property:

Buying a rundown or marginal residential or commercial property and then rehabbing it is one of the best ways to make a significant return on a property investment. Still, purchasing the property is only the first step.

The nation's economy has always been closely linked to the health of the real estate market; as a result, when the real estate market is booming, so is America's financial state. This symbiotic relationship stems from the influx of cash that investors spend on real estate investments. Fortunately, the investor's measures prove to be as advantageous for the economy as it is for the investor.

Hard money lenders offer quick loans on hard to finance properties. Not unreasonably, though, they charge for their unique offering. With this in mind, hard money isn't always the perfect solution for every investment real estate purchase. However, when you need a fast, flexible loan for a property that offers the potential of significant near-term equity growth, hard money lenders are hard to beat.

With more and more investors looking at participating in the recovering housing market, new challenges have arisen in figuring out where to invest your money. For a while, the biggest challenge was finding people who wanted to take out hard money loans. Today, it's selecting the best possible borrowers from the large pool available. Setting up a system for lending can help you to streamline the process.

In today’s investing arena the performance of most fixed income portions of investment portfolios is, at best, anemic. While the low interest rate environment is a boon to those seeking capital, for investors, the returns from the fixed income portion of their investments is unable to keep up with inflation.

Trust Deeds can be a viable alternative, offering substantially higher returns available in the real estate market, with considerably less risk and without the hassles of acquiring, maintaining and managing real estate holdings.