Real estate investing strategies have undergone major changes in the past four years. Before the banking crisis and economic recession, many investors were generating massive profits through rehabbing distressed properties and engaging in house flipping. Today, investors are using distressed properties to generate rental income or to offer creative financing options.

The first step to achieving real estate investment success is to become educated about the market. Investors should become familiar with the various types of investment properties such as residential, commercial, and vacant land, as well as investing in real estate notes and land contracts.

Residential real estate can be used as rental properties or placed for sale. Many investors are offering creative finance strategies to attract buyers who cannot qualify for bank financing. Popular financing options include lease purchase option agreements and seller carry back mortgages.

Commercial real estate includes a wide mix of properties such as condominium and apartment complexes, retail shops, warehouses, and office buildings. Investors often partner with other investors or investment groups when purchasing commercial property in order to cover the costs and management duties required to maintain investment properties.

Commercial property has the potential to generate substantial profits as long as investors evaluate market conditions. Investors may be entitled to tax incentives when commercial investments bring employment opportunities to the area or when properties are upgraded using energy-efficient technology such as solar panels or other forms of green energy.

Investors often seek out bank owned foreclosure properties because this type of realty is usually priced well below market value. Bank owned realty encompasses all types of properties and can range from mobile homes to swanky high-rise apartments and industrial parks to golf courses.

Locating residential and commercial foreclosures is relatively simple. Using the services of a realtor can expedite the process. Agents can access the multiple listings (MLS) database to quickly locate all types of properties for sale.

Once banks repossess properties they are first placed for sale through public or government auctions. The property is given back to the bank if it goes unsold at auction. Banks then sell foreclosure properties through their loss mitigation division or local realtors.

Prices of bank owned properties are generally higher than properties sold through auction. However, banks remove liens and judgments in order to sell the real estate with a clean title. Buyers are able to take quick possession and can move forward with preparing the property for sale or rent.

Many investors are buying residential properties through Fannie Mae’s Homepath Mortgage program. In addition to selling homes at deeply discounted prices, Homepath Mortgage offers low down payment requirements and special financing options to both individual buyers and real estate investors.

Many Fannie Mae properties qualify for grant money offered through HUDs Neighborhood Stabilization Program. NSP grants are offered to improve properties located in areas with high rate of foreclosure. Qualified investors can obtain up to five NSP grants.

Investors who invest in commercial real estate must become educated about federal, state, and county property laws. Commercial buildings must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and be zoned for commercial use.

Although the real estate market continues to head in a downward spiral, there are still plenty of solid investment opportunities. Investors must stay abreast of market conditions and be capable of changing strategies when needed. Otherwise, they will quickly become another real estate statistic.

What’s next for real estate?

For most people, real estate remains a critical part of personal net worth. Despite the stock market’s recovery, the average net worth of an American family is down about 25% because of tumbles in real estate values and investment assets.

Overview of Market Trends – Focus on Boston

While still suffering because of continued turmoil in the anchor employment areas of Financial Services, Insurance, Real Estate (FIRE), there have been signs of stability in and near major metropolitan areas like Boston. Although the employment picture remains bleak, the Boston metropolitan statistical area (MSA) showed the strongest gains in property values during 2009 according to a recently released report by Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Even with the strong gains helped along by the federal government’s first time home buyer credit and continued low mortgage interest rates, there remain nearly 25% of homes that are “upside down” on their outstanding mortgages.

High unemployment persists as companies continue to announce layoffs or delay hiring. And given the expected wave of creative mortgage products like Alt-A loans, interest-only loans and “pick-a-payment” adjustable rate mortgages resetting to higher rates putting pressure on homeowners who are unable to refinance because of lack of jobs or lack of value, there will likely be an increase in the number of foreclosures.

According to research reported by HousingPredictor.com, the major metropolitan areas in the US will likely not see a boom in real estate until after 2020. With more than 7 million people unemployed and another 20 million listed as underemployed, it may be 2017 or 2020 when these workers are absorbed. And real estate sales depend on those who have jobs.

Real estate booms have typically run in seven to 10 year cycles with some outside trigger precipitating a crisis that popped the bubble. The current situation is unlikely to be different.

Implications for Investors

Apartment vacancy rates are expected to rise through 2010 to about 7% to 10%. The continued collapse in confidence about jobs hampers household formation as individuals may delay marriage or move back in with parents or relatives or double up with friends.

As foreclosures rise, there will likely be greater demand for replacement housing so vacancy rates may fall. And as workers try to keep their options open to accommodate moving for job opportunities, demand for rentals will likely increase as well. The caveat is that there will also likely be a range of supply options that will put pressure on rents. And as a result of continued poor economic conditions, landlords can expect that credit quality of tenants will erode.

Apartments will have to compete with an increasing supply of single-family homes. Currently, the single-family homes available for rent has ballooned to nearly 10% compared to the long-term average of 4.5%. And a change of policy by mortgage servicer Fannie Mae will allow renters living in homes or apartments where the landlords have been foreclosed on to no longer be evicted. This will likely mean that largest landlord of single-family rentals in the US will be a quasi-governmental entity.

The volume of sales in the multi-family market is way off and likely to continue. Potential buyers continue to wait for prices to stabilize. There will continue to be an upward shift in cap rates by 1% to 2% approaching the cap rates of 2002 (8.2%) which will directly contribute to downward pressure on prices in the range of another 10% to 20%.

And given the more stringent underwriting criteria like higher down payment requirements, the number of investors capable of acquiring a property will likely be limited. But there will be opportunities for those investors with the capital and credit to buy when prices stabilize.