Long-Term Real Estate Investing Advantages

In the past few decades, I’ve noticed that there has been a major – and somewhat disconcerting – shift in the way that the majority of investors view real estate investing. As little as 20 years ago, real estate was something that was purchased by-and-large for the long term. It was an integral part of a successful retirement portfolio, and many people invested in good deals when they saw them and could afford them in order to insure that they would eventually live safely and securely as they grew older regardless of the performance of the stock market and other types of retirement investing.

However, as the real estate market became more accessible – and believe me, that was a good thing – people started to view real estate differently. The “flip” became common knowledge and carved out its own niche of real estate investors (flippers) who actually used real estate to make huge chunks of money in the short term, sometimes without even putting any of their own money down. Prior to this, I did not know any investors who looked at real estate investing as being a method of making “free money,” but I heard this term time and again as flipping became easier and more popular. And, for a while, it was arguably pretty darn easy and pretty close to free, if you did not count the man-hours that went into making those deals happen.

Now, however, in this new real estate market, I’m talking to experienced investors who seem to have forgotten that real estate is always good money, but it is not always fast. Right now, you can create security for your future by investing in real estate, but you may not get the payoff for that security tomorrow. I think it’s really important that investors not forget the advantages inherent in long-term real estate investing.

For starters, long-term real estate investing comes with some new advantages as well as the old standby’s like security. For example, many types of long-term investments made today come with tax credits. In addition, they may be authorized for a variety of uses so that you can create new uses (such as multi-use buildings that include residences and shops) for the properties so that they grow in value each year even when areas around them are not doing so well.

In addition, long-term real estate investments can be manipulated to help pay for themselves by leasing them out to tenants. Even if you do not make a huge profit by leasing, you can at least cover the mortgage payments on the properties or make a dent in the costs of maintaining the property by finding good, reliable tenants. The more a property pays for itself, the more valuable it becomes whenever you do decide to sell it, because it represents income as well as just real estate.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1200 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management company. Peter currently works with clients all over the US helping them achieve riches in real estate investing. For more information please visit www.CoachingByPeter.com.