It takes more than one person to make a good real estate investment. You may be buying the property, but you need a whole team of players to help you make smart choices. It's like that old saying in the medical profession, "a doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient". A real estate investor who does all the work himself has a fool for a client.

Even if you hold a real estate broker's license, a general contractor's license, a law degree, a marketing degree and are paying cash, you shouldn't be doing it all by yourself. If nothing else, consulting with other professionals can give you a fresh perspective. Sometimes other people can see things clearly that you might be blind to.

Also, you may be able to play all those roles, but it would be hard to do them all at the same time. You can't be two places at once. You can't be supervising a remodeling crew at the same time that you're signing papers at a closing. You can't be at the county courthouse doing a title search at the same time that you're showing a prospective buyer all the upgrades in the kitchen of your newest listing.

The best use of your time as an investor is to manage the people who handle the ongoing tasks of your business. Although you may start out on your first property handling several of these functions yourself, you need to outsource them and learn to delegate as fast as possible. Otherwise, your business growth will be limited to how fast you can move from task to task.

As you build a team around you, you'll be able to multiply the number of transactions and properties that you can handle. So who exactly are these people that you need on your team? We named some of them at the beginning of this article, but there are a few more people that you should include.

For instance, in addition to the real estate agent or broker, you'll need an appraiser, an inspector, a remodeler and subcontractors (painters, plumbers, electricians, drywall installers). If your business plan includes buying and holding rental properties you'll need a property manager and a landscaping crew. And of course, you'll need an accountant to keep track of your income, expenses and revenue (not to mention doing your taxes).

This may seem like a lot of people to assemble, especially if you don't know any of them already. But it's not as hard as it seems. After you find your first one, the network starts to grow on its own. A real estate agent or broker will know subcontractors or accountants. An accountant will know some attorneys or property managers. So really, all you have to do to get your investment empire started is find your first team member. From there, your team will grow by itself.