Why in the world YOU would want to invest in real estate

The other day, I visited with a guy would was in the category of a 'don't wanter'.  Now, that is defined as someone that has real estate (or anything else for that matter) and does not want to own it any longer!  He had it rented and just didn't want to deal with it any longer.  In his situation, he was correct because of life circumstances, family illnesses and just tired of it.

It makes me thing though that for every one person that is a 'don't wanter', there are many more out there that really WANT.  And the reasons are numerous but just to name a few, here's a handful of reasons why someone should want to invest in real estate:

1.  Value - Real estate remains a very good value these days.  Prices are increasing but at a reasonable rate where it doesn't cause a frenzy in the market.  

2.  Inflation hedge - Because it's a hard asset, as inflation kicks in, so will the price of materials, thus the value of housing will also increase.  Rents, sales are all impacted.

3.  Investment protection - with real estate, you have the opportunity to have investment protection like no other investment can provide.  Where else can you have equity in the property, property insurance, and cash flow.  On top of that, you have tax advantages through depreciation so you win, win and win.
4.  Predictable results - as long as you don't get crazy and think your bullet proof from over leveraging or overly creative, you can predict with a good degree of certainty what your return will be.  Most of the time 7-8 times better than what a bank can offer

5.  Lifestyle - it can provide a lifestyle that many people dream of but never take the opportunity to jump into.  However, that lifestyle is more attainable than you might imagine.

If you want more information or have comments, I'd encourage you to leave your comments below.  I'd love to hear from you