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Here are the five most important habits that real estate investors should pick up, in no particular order:

1. Successful real estate investors are bold, but not reckless.

You need a lot of courage to go out and take the risks that real estate investors are capable of taking. After all, everyone knows that reward follows the risk. The more risk, generally the higher the potential financial rewards tend to be. But that being said, there is a difference between being a risk taker and someone who takes risky chances.

Professional investors who are highly successful always understand the nature of the risk they are taking, and have a clear picture of the anticipated outcome.

For example, take the issue of “leverage”. Leverage was once touted as one of the great tools for wealth as a real estate investor. The idea is to use leverage to maximize the return on capital from multiple investing opportunities. But as we all discovered in 2008, too much leverage can leave you broke if the market collapses.

Leverage, (or any investing plan), used in the context of clarity about the numbers and the anticipated outcome is a strategy. Leverage, (or any investing plan), used in the context of thinking you will get-rich-quick is a recipe for disaster.

2. Successful Real Estate Investors Keep It Legal

Yes, the real estate investing world is rife with fraud and scams. But these guys don’t get away with it forever. Most end up in jail or out of business. Brokers and agents can lose licenses, and a reputation for shady activity will isolate you from the legitimate investors and private lenders who can easily recognize questionable investing tactics.

Avoid illegal activities and the people who encourage them.

3. Successful real estate investors form strategic alliances.

Whether the need is private money, rehab or legal services, the great real estate investors focus on building a team of trusted professionals who can bring special expertise that is needed for a given project or investing strategy.

The most successful investors have worked and networked, to build the team that fits their investing models. Whether it’s cash for deals or construction professionals who can bring a rehab in on time, and on budget.

Building a team is often touted as the first step for new investors, but the truth is that it takes time to learn the ropes and find out what kind of support you will need for a specific project. Pursue relationships that will support your investing strategies, and seek to support the strategies of those who support you.

4. Successful real estate investors never stop learning.

For my generation, the big thing was cassette tapes that we could play in the car. Many of us learned about real estate investing in the car, on our way to work in the mornings. We listened to those tapes over and over, dreaming of the day we would no longer have to sit in rush hour traffic; the day we could officially leave the “rat race” behind.

Today there are thousands of recordings, videos and websites devoted to real estate investing and hundreds of training programs that teach various aspects of the business.

Real estate is a broad industry that involves dozens of potential investing strategies with a wide variety of property types and uses. The most successful investors will always spend some time learning and re-learning the investing techniques of their choice.

Just as with a musical instrument, it can take several years to master real estate investing and find out what your preferred “niche” is.

Some investors are into rental property, some prefer to do quick flips for cash, and some like to purchase notes, while others choose to rehab older houses and turn them into updated, modern homes. Still others prefer to try a little bit of everything.

Real estate investing is one of those industries that allows for a wide variety of choice of business model. Continuing to learn makes you a better investor and helps you identify and keep up with fundamental changes in the market place, which demand changes in your investing strategy.

5. Successful investors are creative thinkers who do not give up easily.

When trying to negotiate deals, it is often necessary to keep the lines of communication open while attempting to identify the real problems that need to be solved, then coming up with creative ways to solve them.

Once I was working with a seller who was getting married and needed to move out of state in just two weeks. After several hours of open, friendly communications, we identified the sellers actual needs, and brainstormed ways to construct a deal that would achieve the seller’s goals as well as our own. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes it’s not so easy, but creative problem solving is often the key to a successful real estate deal.

Real estate investing is still one of the most reliable, practical ways for individuals to build wealth in an unpredictable economy. Regardless of what happens in the world, shelter will always be one of the most basic of human needs. Satisfying that need is what real estate investing is all about.

Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor, author and investing coach in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on Twitter at donnaconsults. Her book “Basics Of Real Estate Investing” Is now available for Amazon Kindle.

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Almost half of all renters surveyed indicated that they would prefer to own a home. But half of that number also said that their income has gone down over the past year while their household expenses have gone up. As a result, renters are less able to save for a down payment to buy a home. Further, almost half of all renters surveyed indicated that they have credit issues that would probably keep them from being able to qualify for a home mortgage.

On the one hand, it’s plain from this data that a general housing recovery is being hampered by a combination of economic factors – falling incomes and a rising cost of living, combined with lots of folks who have seen their credit damaged by delinquencies or foreclosures. It’s a tough combination that is sure to dampen any hopes of a general housing market recovery.

But, that being said, what I see developing here is a major market opportunity for real estate investors who are willing to consider creative seller financing strategies or private lending. Indeed it is arguable that creative seller financing is going to be a growing future trend to accommodate a a vast market of potential and motivated buyers who can no longer access institutional credit sources.

We need roughly 1.5 million more homes sales per year than we currently have, to get to some sense of a “normal” housing market, based on historical averages of around 4.5 to 5 million home sales per year. There are, I’m guessing, probably 5 million tenants currently renting an apartment or house that would prefer to own their own home. The demand is there, but they need funding from non-traditional sources in order to make it happen.

Private investors have an unusual opportunity here to increase cash flow and net return on investment by stepping in with seller financing or private lending to accommodate this growing market segment.

Creative finance techniques are nothing new to real estate investors, but they are most often taught as a way for an investor to buy a home, and rarely taught as a way for an investor to sell a home. Yet the cash flow potential is significant, especially in a world where earnings from more traditional savings and investments has been falling.

Individual real estate investors or large, well funded capital companies that are already buying individual foreclosed homes could realize significant returns from creative seller financing. And there are a number of creative strategies that are already commonly used: “Lease with an Option to Buy”, “contract for deed”, “subject to the existing mortgage”, “taking back a note” and many more. I’d be willing to bet that for companies that plan to buy and rent large numbers of homes, selling with financing is likely to produce a much better return on investment than renting will, simply because a selling strategy alleviates the need for property management and maintenance expenses.

For individual “mom and pop” investors, properties sold with creative finance strategies are being used to generate income for specific purposes. For example, a local investor that I know personally has purchased a foreclosed condo in Florida with plans to sell it creatively and use the cash flow from that particular property to fund his daughters college expenses in a few years. Another friend who is not even a full time investor has used a beachfront property he inherited after Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed it, to retire at the age of 56. He renovated the property, and lives off of the substantial income it generates as a vacation destination.

Few business models offer the flexibility and potential return that creative real estate finance does, for both buyers and sellers. This could be a great way to fill a pent up demand for home ownership that has been effectively removed from the traditional housing market.
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Donna S. Robinson is a real estate industry veteran, real estate entrepreneur, author and market analyst located in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults and read her blog at www.RobinsonRealEstateReport.com