"Business, that's easily defined - it's other people's money." -- Peter Drucker

"It's tangible, it's solid, it's beautiful. It's artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate." -- Donald Trump

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." -- Warren Buffett

Investing in real estate is about using other people’s money to increase one’s own personal wealth. It is not hard to hear a well-known business figure wax poetic about real estate. Robert Kiyosaki has said that he loves real estate because it is dumb as dirt. Meaning real estate is easy to understand and that anyone can master the fundamentals and build wealth using real estate.

Many people think this question is a no brainer. Of course buying a property is better than renting one. But the harsh reality is that the majority of people these days, cannot purchase a home if they wanted to. Some are not even able to rent, because they do not have the means to pay the high rent that most landlords are asking for.

Deciding to rent or buy is totally up to the consumer. When deciding between the two, you want to figure what works best for you now, and what will work for you in the future. For example, you may have the money down, credit and income to be qualified to purchase, but do you have money put away for a rainy day? You want to be prepared if anything were to happen with your current financial/working situation.

During this hard time for the real estate market and economy in general, it is hard to tell if we are in a buyers market or a sellers market.

Over the past few months we have seen some really low prices on homes that are currently on the market. This gives a little bit of relief to the prospective homebuyer who had always thought they couldn't afford a home at the moment. With the flood of short sales, and foreclosure out their, due to this some real estate professionals have said it's a buyers market. But some buyers beg to differ.