Is Real Estate Still A Good Investment?
By Jim Palmer Jr.

I was told once by a person working as an investment advisor that real estate was not a safe investment and that I would be better off to trust him to invest my money in certain stocks or annuities. I’m very glad that I did not take his advice and that I have consistently invested in real estate through the years! That has made all the difference for me in my preparation for retirement age.

Would-be-investors may ask, “What if the market crashes?” My answer is that “The market always crashes.” What goes up must come down. There are inevitable cycles that typically affect the real estate market, but the one certain fact is that even with the ebb and flow of the cycles, the general trend for real estate in the last one hundred years has been upward.

In other words, real estate is generally a great investment. It may only generate a passive income though unless your investment is in income producing properties such as rental properties. One downside to real estate investing is that it usually takes a substantial investment to get started.

Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank fame said, “Buying real estate has made me rich, mostly by necessity, not by design. I bought my first itty-bitty studio after scraping together a few bucks because I needed to live somewhere anyway. Buying that tiny studio was the most important decision I made because it got me in the game.”

“Investing in real estate is a great idea if you are in it for the long haul, not a quick return. Your best bet is investing in residential properties that produce income year round,” said Bethenny Frankel, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

I often ask sellers what they will be doing with the equity they make after the sale of their property and they usually say, “We’ll just put it in the bank.” My suggestion then is to encourage them to carry the contract so they make more interest on their money than if it was sitting in a bank depreciating.

Peter Hernandez, founder of Teles Properties said, “Most millionaires I know made more money from owning real estate than any other investment. Real estate consistently increases in value over time and outperforms other investments. Plus it isn’t as vulnerable to short-term fluctuations as the stock market. It’s always a good time to buy real estate.”