Finding the best investment properties requires you to have a plan. You need to know ahead of time what you are looking for in your investments. Determine what you want to achieve from your investment properties. You need to decide what the ultimate goal will be. Is it your desire to have rental property from which you derive a monthly income? Are you looking to get short term gain by flipping a house? Do you want to become a business owner by buying a current business such as a hotel or apartment building?

Whatever your goal is, these important questions need to be answered first. The best investment properties will reflect your situation and level of expertise. Since there are so many variables to consider, the best investment properties will also be different depending on the situation. Of all the real estate investment choices they do have some things in common. For instance the best investment properties will pay for themselves and will increase in value. It should be your goal to match your resources of money, time, and work needed to be done to reach it.

If you are interested in purchasing an existing business property, find one that is profitable and successful. Don't get off track by failing businesses with the promise of potential. Look over the books, check existing obligations such as lease agreements or restrictive covenants and ask the owner why they are selling. Then ask yourself if you have the ability to run the business. If the success of the business depends on expertise you don't have, walk away unless you know you can get the right people working for you.

The future landlords will need to choose a building style that fits their needs. A single hire-rise apartment, smaller apartments grouped together, or a single family home. The right property investment will be the one that is right for you and this depends on your circumstances. The high-rise building can house lots of tenants with low maintenance, but are expensive to purchase.

Small apartment buildings grouped together will not cost as much as the high-rise apartment building and an important fact is they will have high maintenance needs. A single family home is often a good start, but will need a high rent to make it profitable. Will the area draw the higher rents to make the properties profitable?

Consider house flipping for some of the best investment properties. House flipping works much better in a rising market like we had a couple of years back. Purchase a home, fix it up, and resell it a few months later for a large profit. This is one of the fastest ways to get started with real estate investing, but it does require a lot of work and money. The opportunity now with the market we have today is to buy the distressed properties fix them up and sell at today's prices will be very profitable.

Repossessions in some areas are as high as 60% so with cash you just about write your own deals. You may be able to buy up a number of properties from the same bank as low as 50 or 60 cents on the dollar with cash. If there was ever a market to make your play in it is now.

If you lack the money to invest in real estate, you can choose to live in a home for a few years while fixing it up. Doing this can start your investing career.