As former ‘richest American of all time’ Andrew Carnegie said: “Ninety per cent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.”
With real estate’s average ROI outperforming traditional stocks and bonds – and providing a cushion against market volatility – it’s easy to see why so many investors consider it the #1 path to wealth creation.
But…how and where do you get started?
The truth is, few aspiring real estate investors have capital to begin with.
Starting with money can help.
But it’s not the only way to succeed.
That’s why we’ve rounded up powerful real estate investment examples, including case studies that use creative strategies – so you can see what’s possible even if you don’t have tens of thousands in savings.
Ready to dive into some of the smartest, most profitable real estate strategies?
Let’s get started.
The 6 main types of real estate investment
To succeed in real estate investing, you first need a clear understanding of the types of investment options available.
Knowing the main categories and how they operate can help you choose an approach that aligns with your financial goals and lifestyle.
Here’s an overview:
Active Investments
Active investments require ongoing involvement from the investor and provide either short or long-term ROI.
- Rental Properties: Investors purchase properties and lease them to tenants, providing a steady income stream. This approach also offers potential appreciation and tax benefits, making it a popular choice.
- Vacation Rentals: With the travel industry booming, vacation rentals offer high-income potential, especially in desirable tourist locations. However, managing frequent guest turnover requires significant attention and upkeep.
- Flipping: This strategy involves buying properties and reselling for profit. House flipping usually involves buying a property, renovating it, and then putting it back on the market at a higher asking price.
- Wholesaling: Wholesaling involves finding a seller and a buyer, while the investor takes a cut (called an ‘assignment fee’) for their role as a middleman in the deal.
Passive Investments
Passive investments are ideal for those who prefer lower maintenance options. They typically involve contributing funds to managed real estate ventures that grow wealth over time.
- Real Estate Investment Groups (REIGs): In REIGs, investors pool funds to buy and manage properties, receiving returns without hands-on involvement. This approach offers diversification and networking with other investors.
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): REITs invest in commercial properties and pay dividends to shareholders. As publicly traded companies, they’re a liquid way to invest in real estate, and options include Equity, Mortgage, and Hybrid REITs, each with unique income strategies.
Which real estate investment is best?
All of the 6 types of real estate investment above are profitable.
But, that doesn’t mean you should get involved in all of them. Depending on your current situation, you might not even be able to.
In this blogpost, we’re focusing on house flipping and wholesaling.
Why?
These are the strategies that Call Porter co-founder Ryan Dossey used to go from broke high school dropout to 7-figure real estate magnate.
Like most people, Ryan didn’t start out with money.
And this is often the starting point for the hundreds of students in his mastermind for off-market investors, called the CCF Mastermind 2.0.
So if you’re looking to get involved in real estate investing – and you need creative strategies to start out with little to no capital – then the following examples demonstrate the best kinds of real estate investment for you.
5 real-life examples of real estate investments
1. Wholesaling Properties
What does it involve?
In real estate wholesaling, an investor (the wholesaler) contracts a property at a lower price, typically from a motivated seller, and then assigns that contract to a buyer at a higher price before the sale closes. The wholesaler makes a profit from the difference between the contract price and the price the buyer is willing to pay, without having to actually own the property.
How do you do it?
Wholesaling properties is one of the best ways for new real estate investors to get started. You don’t need the capital or financing to actually buy a property…instead, you make a cut connecting a seller to a buyer. But here’s the problem: how do you find sellers?
Call Porter co-founder Ryan Dossey is an expert in direct mail. It’s one of the most effective ways to make sure your pitches are opened and read – with Ryan’s company BallPoint Marketing he sees an average response rate of 1.5% with direct mail. There is software out there which can help you pull high-value lists and be ready to go in under a day.
But in the video below, Ryan admits that sometimes cold calling the same lead you’re mailing can get you a deal much faster. A lot of homeowners receive many direct mailers so actually picking up the phone (if you have the time) can help you stand out. If you’re just starting out, a combination of direct mail and cold calling can be the best way to get into wholesaling.
What’s a good example?
Ryan Dossey created a strategy for new real estate investors. It requires under $1,000 to get started and will help you get your first wholesale deal in under 30 days. It’s a step-by-step property which includes:
- Use Propstream to create lists of likely motivated sellers in your market (see the video for more details on what lists to build)
- Use SkipGenie to get phone numbers for each of the addresses on your list
- Use Mojo Dialer to automatically ring numbers and save yourself time
- Handwrite your own cards or letters (or use a tool like BallPoint Marketing) and send out a direct mail campaign to your list
Using this strategy, Ryan predicts a cost of $978 to help you create and work a list of 1,000 high-value properties. This should be enough to help to get leads and close your first wholesale deal within 30 days.
2. Wholesaling Properties With a Code Violation
What does it involve?
Wholesaling is the real estate strategy most new investors focus on. Why? Because it allows the investor to make money without actually having the capital to buy a property outright. Instead, your job is to just find a seller, find a buyer, and take a cut for connecting the two. Sounds simple, right? But in reality, finding motivated sellers is tough.
How do you do it?
One of the best ways to find motivated sellers is to look for properties with a code violation: maybe the owner didn’t pull permits, the property was vacant, or it needed boarding up, etc. The owner may take any offer they get. Also, it’s likely this kind of property is overlooked by other real estate investors.
What’s a good example?
In the video below, Call Porter co-founder Ryan Dossey explains how he made $12,000 profit from a property he found using free county data. The time from the first meeting to the close was just two months. Ryan explains that he found the property as it was on a code violation list, but also discovered the owner had equity. He mailed the owner multiple times and eventually got a callback.
3. Wholesaling Vacant Land
What does it involve?
Wholesaling is the process of a real estate investor finding a seller and a buyer, and then taking a cut for their role in making the deal happen. Many properties also come with land. Usually, the real estate investor includes the land and property as part of the same deal – but you can also subdivide the plots to sell them separately. Or purchase vacant land outright.
The real estate investment industry is competitive. But there’s not a lot of investors wholesaling vacant land. This means there is less supply of land on the market, it can be easier to make deals, and it’s not that difficult to call a county government to separate plots or split a plot from an existing property. The benefits of the actual deal-closing process include:
- No inspections
- Faster sales
- Sold as is (no repairs needed)
How do you do it?
The process for finding vacant lots can be a by-product of your wholesaling strategy: you might get a deal on a house with land. You can then split the lots up to sell the property to one buyer and the vacant lot to another buyer.
You can also actively look for vacant lots using list-building tools like Propstream. In the video below, Ryan Dossey shows you how to build such a list.
What’s a good example?
In the video below, Call Porter co-founder Ryan Dossey explains how he wholesaled a vacant plot of vacant land and made $35,000 in profit. The time between listing and sale was only 3 weeks. In the video below Ryan actually walks you through the process of finding vacant lots for sale.
4. Flipping Properties
What does it involve?
Flipping properties involves buying a real estate asset, typically at a discount, renovating or improving it to increase its value, and then selling it quickly at a higher price for profit. Investors in property flipping focus on identifying undervalued properties, budgeting for upgrades, and completing renovations efficiently to maximize returns.
How do you do it?
As with wholesaling, the process of flipping a property starts with building lists and using direct mail or cold calling to get a deal. You could just find properties on the MLS. But finding your own sales is a great way to find motivated sellers who will take a cash offer at lower than the asking price, and often end up making you more profit.
But flipping doesn’t end with a deal. With a flip you are buying the property, rehabilitating or renovating it, and then selling it on as the owner rather than the middleman.
So what happens if you want to flip a property, but don’t have the capital to finance the purchase and rehab costs? In the example below, Call Porter co-founder Ryan Dossey explains how he made $47,000 on a flip while using lenders to finance the deal.
For more advice on raising private money for real estate investing you can watch this video.
What’s a good example?
Ryan Dossey has an example below of how he made $47,000 profit in 90 days by flipping a property. Ryan explains how he created a mailing list, sent a direct mail campaign using BallPoint Marketing, fielded the call using Call Porter, closed the deal, funded the rehab and re-sold it. There’s also a full list of itemized costs.
5. Finding Wholesale Deals for Free
What does it involve?
The first real estate investment example in this list is what a typical wholesaling strategy looks like. But is there a way to find wholesale deals for free? There are creative strategies you can use
How do you do it?
There is no one fixed way to do this. In this video from Ryan Dossey he talks through methods like:
- Telling your network you’re a real estate investor
- Using Craigslist
- Accessing local Facebook Groups
- Posting on your own Facebook or Instagram pages
- Garage sales
- Walking or driving through neighborhoods and identifying likely houses with motivated sellers
What’s a good example?
In the example below, Ryan Dossey explains how he made a $30,000 assignment fee on a deal – without spending anything to get the seller lead! How? He joined a local ‘Buy Sell Trade’ Facebook Group and then saw a post about someone looking to sell a house that needed work done. Ryan made a cash offer below the asking price, it was accepted and secured a buyer for the property.
The key to building wealth as a real estate investor
Many of the real estate investment strategies you just saw can be done as a side hustle.
It’s a great way to make your first deal.
But building lasting wealth and making real estate your primary income requires a more consistent approach.
To achieve financial freedom, you need to scale up by implementing several strategies simultaneously, whether that’s wholesaling, flipping, or rental investing.
And…eventually you’ll reach a point where managing it all on your own just isn’t sustainable.
So, what’s the next step?
Enter Call Porter, a live call answering service tailored for real estate investors.
Call Porter fields calls from your direct mail campaigns and other marketing efforts, with representatives who qualify leads and book appointments on your behalf.
With Call Porter, you gain back your time and ensure that no lead slips through the cracks, giving you more freedom to focus on growing your investment portfolio.