There’s much talk about the “credit crisis” and “housing bust,” but the root cause for both is the housing boom. There are several key regulatory, fiscal, and monetary policy factors that contributed to, and likely can be aggregated to have caused, the unprecedented housing boom that ended in 2006. It was this unsustainable boom that ultimately led to the excesses that nearly collapsed our financial system. We all hear about unscrupulous lenders (there were many of them), greedy investment banks (there were several of them), and lack of regulation to contain the circus. But what about the notion that perhaps this was caused and perpetuated because of regulation?

Government incursion comes in three forms here: municipal and state regulators, federal lawmakers, and the Federal Reserve. The first is most pervasive and the primary reason we’ve seen such extreme variances in local market growth rates. There’s a reason why Santa Barbara housing price growth rates far outstripped that of Houston, despite higher population and standard of living growth rates in the former. The magic behind the mystery comes from far more severe land use restrictions in coastal California than in Texas. Developers are restricted from adding new supply in Santa Barbara, but are free to do so in Houston to match growth in demand.

Federal policy is also largely responsible for this last boom. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dictated to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their portfolio of subprime mortgages. This was plain and simple social policy in action. The goal was to increase rates of homeownership amongst low-income demographics. We are finding out now the hard way that many of these people could not afford their homes after teaser rates expired and housing prices stopped growing at double digit rates. Thank you HUD for encouraging them into the market! A new and scary player in this regulatory roulette is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), linking climate to land use regulation. America, beware!

Finally, we cannot escape monetary policy. It is the Federal Reserve that controls prices for money through various tools that affect interest rates. After 9/11 Alan Greenspan dropped the federal funds rate to near-zero, which was likely in the negative real interest rate territory. He kept rates in this territory for a sustained period of time, only slowly and very incrementally raising them through the peak of the housing boom. Low rates signal the market to borrow borrow borrow. Negative real rates provide negative incentive to save; the omnipotent, omniscient Federal Reserve board of governors sits on the same pedistal of power that Kremlin Communists used to perch whilst dictating grain prices and pretty much everything else in their defunct economy.

This is only a rough snapshot at how some regulations and government policies affected real estate and drove the market nuts up through 2006. As stated earlier there were certainly many private parties responsible for unethical lending practices, incompetent risk managers at large financial institutions, and just plain old greedy people who tried to take advantage of what proved an unrealistic market. Before we scream for increased government involvement in real estate and financial markets, we should seriously evaluate what caused the problems of the past. It’s clear that government played a significant part, so does it make sense to call on the same institutions to increase their involvement? Or perhaps it makes more sense to reduce their encroachment so that markets can work?

Are you thinking of investing in real estate? There is a lot of money involved in property investment so not only is there money to be made but if you’re not informed then you can lose a lot. Not only do you need access to money but there is hard work and research involved in making money in the real estate business. If you have the drive then you can find buying, renovating and reselling or renting property for a profit enjoyable and rewarding. Here are some tips to acquiring property for resale or renting.

Look for a property in the best location you can afford. The best rental and resale family homes should be close to public schools and shopping centers. There should also be access to freeways and public transportation, especially in urban areas. Contact the local police department or use tools online to find out the crime rate in the neighborhood.

Once you have done your market research and decided on possible properties, you’ll need to know as much as possible about each prospective property. While visiting the property look carefully for anything that will need to be replaced or repaired. Look for repairs that can be hidden and costly such as cracked hardwood floors, plumbing, mildew and electrical problems. Take notes and write these issues down so you can review them later.

Once you have done your own inspection and decided that a property looks like a possible investment, hire a professional inspector. Make sure to find a reputable and reliable inspector even if you have to spend more money. They will tell you what needs to be repaired, what should be repaired, and what work will need to be done in the future.

Don’t get too attached to a property. Remember, your goal is too make money on the home. Keeping that in mind will help put things in perspective and help you not to make any hasty decisions. No matter how nice you find the property, don’t be afraid to walk away from a sale.

Use professionals to help you before you decide to buy a property. An appraiser will help you determine the value of the real estate and how much it will be worth with renovations. You will also need to figure out how much renovations will cost to determine if a profit is possible.

Have your finances in order before mking an offer. Financial aid is available and should be used especially if you don’t have enough capital to invest in something that will turn a profit. Be careful though; a long term loan (such as 30 years) may not pay off if you’ll be selling it in the short term. Use an accountant if you’re unsure of the number crunching.

After you’ve completed the buying and selling of your first property you will be on your way to making real estate investment a hobby and a business.

Many people think that they can make a fortune by investing in real estate, however if you don’t know what you’re doing then it could be a very expensive lesson. Before you decide to try your hand at investing in property there are some things that you need to learn. This business requires a lot of long hard work, and access to plenty of money. If you do it right then you can make a considerable amount of money.

It’s important to know as much as you can about this subject before you start spending any of your money. When you are deciding which property to buy you should pay special attention to anything which needs renovating or repairing. It’s a good idea to take a notepad and pen with you so that you can remember any potential problems.

Make sure you thoroughly inspect the house by flushing all of the toilets, turning on the lights, checking the floorboards, inspecting the walls and ceilings for cracks. Try to check out every potential problem so that nothing catches you by surprise. Once you have decided on the house that you want to buy you should hire a house inspector to check it out before parting with your cash. This will give you a clear idea of how much money you will need to spend on renovating and repairing your property.

Make sure you also pay attention to the market which you are buying the home in. Is there a school close to it? Is it within easy reach of the freeway? Also check out the local crime rates and find how well houses sell in this area whether its a mansion in Hollywood or a villa in Spain.

When buying homes for an investment you cannot be sentimental, this will weaken your position. You want to buy the house for as low a price possible, if you’ve fallen in love with it and the owner realizes then they may stick out for more money. If you can play a good game of poker, then you will do very well! Just because you love a house, it does not mean that it will be any easier to sell.

If you can’t afford to buy the property personally then you can take out a loan to cover the cost. This will work in exactly the same way as if you are buying a home to live in. However if you do this then you need to be aware of the loan costs. If you take out a loan which lasts for 30 years is it possible to pay it off in full when you sell it and have a large profit? Many loans will have a penalty if you pay the loan off early. You don’t want to lose money, so you need to be careful when borrowing money to fund your home property investment business.

The real estate market has dropped out. Prices are falling around your ears. So does this mean that you should get out of property investing? No this is actually a great opportunity to increase your portfolio. When you are buy real estate it does not really matter where the market is, unless you are considering selling in the short term. If you are holding long term then you have to accept the market fluctuations if you can buy during a low period of a cycle that is the “golden hour” in real estate…but sometimes it is hard to find that hour on your watch.

Now that the market is experiencing a downturn it is a great time to be buying. Just look at the foreclosure lists. You have a massive inventory to choose from and most are at below market value. Go for positive cash flow whenever you can. In other words make sure your rental income equals or exceeds your outgoing including mortgage repayments. If you have other income you may be able to stand an extra $100 or more per month to top off the mortgage but try to avoid it.

When real estate prices where climbing we all knew that our property values also climbed. Now in a declining market and slower home sales, investors need to be able to hold those property investments for a longer period of time.

Several investors that started during the “boom” now have to change how they are thinking about investing. This is the time when we separate “those who can from those who got lucky and made a few bucks”. Now is when the long term hold plans must start becoming the focus. This is a business. You need to do the math. Will your income from your investment cover the expenses/new mortgage?

Taking the current market woes in to consideration, the fact that now is a great time to buy and hold for the long term, goes without saying. Due diligence is the key for the next few years. Now is the time to look at buying for long term gains.

There are times in your life when in order to change your future you have to make decisions that others may question.

That is the case with investors who want to build a rental portfolio or invest in real estate but their market is so crazy that a 2/1 shack is 200k or the taxes are so high that they cannot get a positive cash flow. So what do you do?

Look for properties in another area, or even another state, which are affordable and give you positive cash flow.

There are plenty of the areas that the news never talks about because they don’t have 50 percent appreciation in a year. They just steadily grow at a measly 3 to 5 percent, and guess what When the Bubble burst they also didn’t have 50% depreciation in a year. In fact, they just hang out and many people just don’t even notice.

So what are the keys to finding a stable area that won’t blow up or down? Here are 7 steps to finding out your area properties to invest in.

1. Search for areas that have a strong rental market, an area where a good majority of houses are owned by investors who are renting property. This will tell you that the taxes are low and the rent rates are high enough to attract investors who want cash flow.

2. Look for the areas that other out of state investors are buying in. Google is one way that comes to mind. Craigslist.com is also a very good source. In fact, I think it is one of the best sources to find great deals.

3. When you find the area, talk to people there about the markets overall appreciation. Find a market that is quite boring, one where no one really ever understood all of the hype about the real estate bubble because it wasn’t happening there.

4. Once you find the area that other out of state buyers are buying in, the work begins. You are not there, so someone will have to do your work for you. And the best way to find the local deals is to find the local wholesaler!

5. Just like a spy gathering intelligence, find somebody who is connected, who is the big dog dealer around, and try to get him on your side. That is what you should do to find the best deals in the area.

6. Find out who are the hard moneylenders in the area. They will be friendly with the local wholesalers. Find the moneylenders, and you will find the best deal finders. They will be the ones finding deals and bringing buyers who need to borrow the money. Easy - just like a spy!

7. Contact the wholesaler in your area. It’s much easier and less work than working with realtors. Be sure to do some checking and asking around, make sure he or she is the big dog, so to speak. They run their business off of volume so they find the deals and mark them up just a few thousand and move them so they can keep buying more properties. Besides, the local wholesaler is going to snatch all the best deals up anyway because they are going to have all the relationships with the realtors anyway and get 1st call on the deals.

In general, for the work the local wholesalers do - looking at hundreds of houses and making hundreds of offers to get their deals - they are more than worth the measly mark up they make. Let them find you the best property mangers and contractors, let them find you quality properties faster, let them help you achieve your investing goals.

Then what? Start working, do some deals, build your cash flow, and take charge of your future. Be Bold and Courageous, you won’t regret it!

To be successful in the rental properties business I have a few tips for you. First, you need to do some research and find out where rental homes are needed.

You need to get educated. Find out what areas are in need of housing. Areas that need housing are ones that have a lot of businesses in that city or town. Make sure it is a booming area, not an area that many manufacturing companies are closing and people are losing their jobs. Otherwise, you will find families wanting to move out of that area and looking elsewhere, where the employment is. Make sure you are looking in a safe area for people to raise their family. No one wants to move into an area where risks are involved. The next step is to make sure that the area is getting a high deal on rent. You don’t want to be paying for a house that is only going to generate low rent. That does not make sense when you are trying to make money. The area has to have inexpensive houses to buy with higher rent.

In order to establish the above, it would be best to get someone who can direct you in the right market. Find a person who can teach you and put you on the items you need to focus on. In order to find the right person, make sure they are in the business and know what they are doing. Do not watch a television ad or an online ad and think you know what you are doing. You will read a lot of different information on rental housing and wholesale real estate. Some information is good to know and some is fluff. You need to be taught by a mentor who can show you each step you need to take in the correct manner.

A lot of money can be made in rental houses. Once you have done the above-mentioned steps, purchase the house. Then you will need a contractor to check the house to make sure everything is tenant ready. Replace and fix things as inexpensively as you can. You also want to establish a good relationship with people and keep a good business reputation. If you are renting out homes that are unsafe or not kept up that will bring your reputation down immediately. Keeping a good reputation has numerous advantages. One example is if a renter has to move out he or she may even find a new renter for the house.

By buying your first rental property based on this kind of research, you will be making extra income. With that income you can purchase more rental properties. The idea is to keep repeating the step over and over again. At first the work is hard, but if you stay determined with time the steps get easier and easier. In no time you will find yourself very successful in dealing with rental houses.

Drop me in a new city and tell me to buy a good real estate deal in less than 3 hours. Here is what I would do.

Unlike all the gurus who will tell you to do a lot of marketing and make a lot of offers on houses, if I wanted to find a deal fast the first thing I would do is find the local real estate wholesaler.

Not just any wholesaler, because in a large market there will probably be quite a few and that is where you want to invest. What you should look for is the Big dog wholesaler, the one who is selling more properties than anyone else. Look for somebody who is buying and selling five to ten properties per month. That would be a true wholesaler.

A true real estate wholesaler marks up a deal a few thousand dollars and goes to the next deal. Unlike many courses and real estate gurus who talk of making 10, 20 or even 50k on a deal. They are not true wholesalers. They are flippers.

Flippers make home runs. They find a property and mark it up a lot and make a kill on one deal. These guys do one or two deals a month.

The true wholesalers will not make much money on each deal, that is why investors will be buying from them over and over again because they know they are getting the best deals.

I am one of the big dog wholesalers in my area and, after thinking about how I do business, I realized that before I became a wholesaler I spent a bunch of time and money learning how to find deals. It does pay off if you want to be a wholesaler. But if you are just trying to flip a deal or build a rental portfolio it really does not make sense. In my opinion, devoting a lot of time and money to find real estate deals in this case would be a waste of time. You simply will not be able to find better deals than me.

Use the local wholesaler if you want to find great deals super fast. It is like having a buyer on your staff that is doing all the legwork for you. By using their expertise you will save time and money that is more than worth the mark up you will pay.

Where do you go to buy something at lower a price? Wal-Mart, Target, all of the similar stores are large wholesalers. They buy in bulk and then pass the savings on to the consumer. In your real estate investing the local wholesaler does the same for you.

It’s a fact of life that you will have to pay your taxes each year, and it’s equally inevitable that you’ll hear people complain about them. Those who are tired of grumbling about having to pay their own taxes will often grouse about how much money the rich manage to avoid paying. No matter how one looks at it, it seems unfair– those with less bear the greater part of the burden while the wealthy have lawyers working around the clock finding new ways for them to avoid paying their share. With this state of affairs, it’s no wonder that the lower and middle classes resent the rich.

Unfortunately, simply recognizing injustices and complaining about them isn’t sufficient to change the ways of the world. The rich will inevitably have money and therefore power, and they will use this power to stack the deck in their favor, particularly when it comes to using tax breaks to keep their money. They will claim that there simply isn’t enough money for everyone to get what they need, all the while cutting corners and keeping their spoils for themselves. This extends to elected officials as well– how many poor politicians have you heard of?

Because this is the way our society works, you can either sit and feel sorry for yourself or you can take steps better your situation. The truth of the matter is that, if you know the secrets of the rich, you can get these same tax benefits that the rich enjoy.

In his Rich Dad book series, Robert Kiyosaki advocates figuring out what the rich do to be rich, and do that. Except that you don’t have to figure it out. He didn’t even have to figure it out, because he had a rich “dad” to tell him the secret of the rich: investing. Especially in real estate.

In his book “Cash Flow Quadrant,” Kiyosaki says “One of the reasons I chose to work predominantly in the B and I quadrants are the tax advantages,” The aforementioned “quadrant” is an invention of “Rich Dad,” a diagram consisting on a square divided into quarters, each representing the different ways in which different people relate to money. It’s an unavoidable fact that an individual’s personal philosophy and perspective on the world will affect the way in which he or she behaves with money, and this behavior will,, in turn, decide his or her ultimate financial success or failure.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, the real money is in the business and investment quadrants of the Cash Flow Quadrant.

It’s best to take an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” attitude towards the wealthy– there’s no way you’re ever going to beat them, so the next best thing is to become one of them. Know also that the rich aren’t simply lucky; if you follow the examples set by rich people, you can become one of them, and you can get the tax breaks that they are able to get.

This is how you become rich: put money into investments and let that money multiply as you sit back and watch. You can, of course, continue working as an employee while your investments make you money, but Kiyosaki believes that the more profitable path is to venture into the ‘B’ quadrant and formulate a business model that will help you to create wealth with minimum effort on your part. The most important thing, though, is that you do invest.

So, invest– invest in apartments, condos, vacation homes, whatever suits your fancy. This is the true, time-tested road to wealth.

In my area one will find a lot of investors who make a bunch of money, but if you ask them what their secret is to finding their houses they will tell you that they don’t know how.

What investors will tell you is they are not looking themselves, they let the local wholesaler find good deals. There are many investors in my area who buy from me, a wholesaler, over and over again. Sometimes I feel like I am missing out when I hear about how much money they are making on the houses that I sell them; but that is just the way it is.

These lucky investors figured out that I was not good at selling properties to home owners, and they realized that I had no desire to make a huge profit on a deal. I just wanted to make a few thousand on a deal and do that a bunch of times each month.

Most of those investors knew that I had to move properties fast so I could make a living. Unlike them, buying and selling houses is my full time job. They already have jobs, so they would not find the time to look for the deals that I brought to them.

Briefly, if you want to make a bunch of money in real estate yet you don’t have the time to find the deals, go to the guy who is selling a dozen properties a month and doing volume business. If you don’t, you will find out that you will save maybe a few thousand bucks, but the time it will take you will not be worth it.

There seem to be two types of people in the world: office slaves who very nearly treat work as a religion and who are in danger of neglecting the very families for whom they work so hard to provide; and people who have adopted more of a slacker mentality, convincing themselves that money isn’t important because they don’t want to be slaves to the workaday world.

One person who most certainly does have money is Robert Kiyosaki, and in one of his books, “Cash Flow Quadrant,” Anyone who says money isn’t important obviously has not been without it long,”

One would do well to heed Kiyosaki’s words on these matters, because although he is now rich, he does know what it feels like to be flat broke– as a matter of fact, he spent several weeks in 1985 living in his car. After that, Kiyosaki and his wife moved into the basement of a friend, where they lived for about a year. During this time, they took small jobs here and there but didn’t look for steady careers, as security wasn’t what they were really after– they wanted to be rich.

Today, Robert Kiyosaki and his wife are millionaires.

Though money is undeniably an important thing, I must caution you again viewing it as an end in itself. This is the type of thinking that traps people in “good” jobs, that, in reality, pull them away from their loved ones and their favorite pastimes. At the end of the day, money’s worth nothing if it doesn’t allow you to do what you love; this is why Robert Kiysaki and his wife took the path they did, instead of pursuing salaried jobs.

No job will ever give you more time to spend with your friends and family. Your work, especially if it’s important, high-paying work, will always force you to juggle your priorities.

Life as an employee is, in most cases, a dead end– if you’re spending all your time and energy working for a paycheck, you’ll never have time to pursue what you truly desire. You’ve purchased financial security with your time, but all this security really assures you is that you will have more work to do, day in and day out. If you want to break out of this cycle, take the true road to riches: investing.

Kiyosaki seen been at that crossroads himself. “Money is important, but I did not want to spend my life working for it,” he says in his Rich Dad series. Luckily he had the benefit of that rich dad’s knowledge of how the financial world works to see him through.

He knew the secret to taking care of a family without having to devote one’s entire life to one’s work, and that secret is real estate investing.

It’s a simple principle; as an employee, you’re working for money, but an investor, money works for you. All you have to do to start out is take some of the money you’ve made as an employer and move it into real estate. This is all it takes to start paving the way to a bright financial future, in which your wealth is constantly growing without you having to lift a finger, leaving you free to live life and spend time with loved ones.

With real estate investing, you truly can have it both ways, making the money you would be making at a high-paying job (and more!) while your time remains free for… whatever you choose! Take care of your family, begin a new hobby, simply live life without stress and worry.