Being a landlord is one way to invest in real estate, but it comes with a lot of problems. Your tenants will call you day or night about overflowing toilets and noisy neighbors. Then you have the hassle of finding new tenants when the old ones decide to leave.

This is the most popular way to invest in real estate, but is not the only way. Here are five more ways to invest in properties and make a decent income without having to deal with tenants.

Real estate investment trusts

REITs or real estate investment trusts enable you to invest in real estate without actually being a landlord. They are companies which own commercial real estate. You can invest in them to get the dividends, which are usually higher than those from mutual funds. REITs are a good retirement investment, especially if you can add the dividends to the initial investment, in order to grow it each time.

REITs provide a lot of opportunities, as they can be treated like a stock, where you use a metatrader 4. There are also REITs which are not publicly traded and have a higher risk. Most of the times it is better to stay with the publicly traded REITs, which are also easy to sold.

Online real estate platforms

Online real estate platforms connect investors with developers. The investor can choose to finance projects through debt or equity and receive a regular dividend in return. This type of investment is speculative and can't be easily unloaded, so you need to think twice before opting for it. You might also need a minimum amount of money to be able to invest in a project, depending on the platform you choose to work with.

Rentals

An easy way to become a real estate investor is to buy a multiple bedroom property and live in one room, while renting the others. This will enable you to make a living and cover the expenses of the property. You can also invest in a multi-unit property and rent some of them, while living in one. This form of investment enables you to develop it over time and buy more properties.

Students who have enough money to buy a multi-bedroom property can save on rent money by using this method.

Fix and flip

Another popular real estate investment method is to buy an old property, restore it and sell it for a profit. However, this is the hardest way to invest in real estate. When you consider buying an old house you need to estimate how much the repairs are going to cost. If you underestimate the amount, you won't be able to make a profit when you will sell the building. You also need to get involved in the project, thus you will need free time to fix the property.

A way to test the waters and see if you can really do this is finding an experienced partner who is willing to accept you. Another way to cut the expenses is to live in the house while you repair it.