Understand up front that investing in real estate today will require you make more educated decisians. You do not want to have to limit yourself to aquiring houses you have money for. Many real estate markets now have a large amount of properties with very little equity. You will not be able to sell much higher than what the area brings. This is why you need to buy at a large discount to make a good profit if you are doing this the tradtional way. . . This is where other avenues in the real estate market come into use.
Investors will start by looking into prices in the different arenas. Next, they search through property listings with the words must sell, needs work or vacant. It is partly because of this that some people who are flipping houses are doing so well. Afterwards, you have to weigh your reward against the amount of your own labor spent obtaining the home successfully sold. .