The right way would be to make money. However, there are many things to keep you from doing so. There is one thing that you can do in order to ensure that you do make money investing in real estate: BUY RIGHT. But how do you do that? How do you know when you get the right deal? Read on and I’ll tell you how.

Allow me to illustrate this key tip using a little story from my own experience, which you may be able to relate to…

At the peak of the real estate boom, in the red hot sellers market, Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg (now the capital of foreclosure investing), I attempted a flip, but instead got the privilege of moving to a new principle place of residence.

Purchased as a rehab and flip, this property was a large block house in a nice area that needed a complete overhaul. It had been vacant and not updated in 30 years. I thought I had gotten a good deal, or so it appeared, as there were back-up contracts on this house at least five deep. And at the time it was a good deal $173,000 for a house that needed $25,000 and was worth $250,000 afterwards.

Looking back, I should have held off and kept searching for a property better suited for me, as my experience level was not suited for this size of a rehab. None-the-less, I ended up doing a knock-up job on my first full rehab, taking this property from the worst house on the block to the best. The only problem was that the budget nearly doubled. Oh yeah, and the market took a s--t.

So now I live in a great house, in a good area, and owe more than what I can sell it for. Fortunately, I was able to refinance and pull money out, so I didn’t lose on the deal. But, I didn’t get into real estate ‘not to lose’, I got in it to make money!

I did do something on this investment purchase and failed flip that saved me from becoming a big loser.

Had a bought like I had before and only searched the MLS for real estate deals, which 1,000’s of other people were searching for simultaneously, I would have lost a lot more than my shirt when the market went South. In fact, I not only jumped into a project that was well beyond my experience level, I also got caught in the middle of a real estate market fall-out. My saving grace was that this time I purchased the property from a real estate ‘wholesaler’.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with that terminology, listen up, because you should be by now. This is the biggest key to buying right when investing in real estate and it will save you a lot of headaches, money and relationships throughout your investing career.

A ‘wholesaler’ in real estate investing is financially more important than a Sam’s Club or a Costco is to the average consumer/bargain shopper. A Wholesale real estate investor finds the cheapest real estate deals and then sells them for a profit to another “end-user” investor. Named, aptly, for the position he, or she, plays in the real estate distribution chain, the wholesaler is the key component in getting great real estate investment deals. And, subsequently, will prevent you from losing money even if everything else around you goes wrong.

Now, as a wholesaler, I can not only get great rehab and rental properties for myself, but I also find enough that I can help other investors get great deals as well. So when you look for your next investment property be sure to find a legitimate wholesale real estate investor first.