Strike while the iron is hot! In a period like this and with COVID on the loose, it’s important to find alternative sources of income. Real estate investment is one of the few ways you can use to make easy money, but just remember that you’ll have to spend money to make money. Owning properties is like owning a winning lottery ticket because there are so many ways you can make money with it. Let’s discuss several sources of an income you can easily get when you become a real estate investor.

Real Estate Appreciation

As economies go up and down, so do real estate prices. When the price of properties goes up due to one factor or another, a seller can make a profit if the price is significantly higher than what it was first bought (e.g. a house in 2012 could cost $500,000 but in 2018 it could be $800,000, so you would be making a profit of $300,000). The way you can increase the price of the property is through increasing its value. For example, if it’s a one-storey house, you can build another floor and add more rooms. Doing TLC will add a lot to the property so that you can ask for a better selling price. There other factors that determine the price of the property that are out of your hands, such as its location. If for example, some type of luxury hotel or shopping center were to open close by, that would also cause a significant increase in the price, which is all the more reason you should make sure the property is up to standards that the buyer expects.

Cash Flow Income

This is the second type of way you can really turn your property into a money-making machine. Cash flow income involves using it as a way of generating wealth either by collecting rent from tenants, such as if it is an apartment building or if there are businesses that plan to use the property as an office. Offering the property to retail businesses or for other people as storage units are also viable ways of building cash flow income as a real estate investor.

Real Estate Related Income

You’re probably going to need a real estate license for this, but you also produce income by helping clients purchase or sell properties. The money is from the commissions you make on the sale and you can either do this as a broker at a firm or you can start your own real estate company for this.