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Today's market offers investors a variety of investment means. One of the most rewarding opportunities is real estate investing, which can produce a very good income stream. If you choose to become a real estate investor, you will enjoy several benefits not associated with other types of investments.

First, investing in real estate has an enormous benefit of leveraging financially. Even borrowing money for real estate investing from a bank you may often get a deal with a down payment of 10%, this means your returns may be instantly increased tenfold. Assuming you have $10,000 for investing and you get a 10% return on that investment regardless of the investment vehicle. Putting this in the stock market will buy you $10,000 in shares and 12 months later your investment is worth $11,000. Putting the same money in real estate with a 90% loan you end up earning 10% on the entire $100,000 investment and end up with $110,000.

The power of leverage is one of the biggest advantages which real estate investing offers. In the example above, $10,000 has been doubled in the real estate market, whereas it only increased by $1,000 in the stock market. This occured because the lender's money is working for you too. And this is only one of many reasons to become a real estate investor.

Another incredible reason to get most benefit from the tax amount is investing in real estate. This was one of the best tax breaks of real estate investing was the most REQUIRED depreciation by IRS on the property. This represents a "paper loss" when in most cases the property (including the land) is actually appreciating. So in this essence you pay taxes on a reported profit figure that is significantly lower than your actual earnings - good one.

Perhaps an even better tax benefit is the 1031 exchange as defined by section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Essentially this allows investors to delay paying any capital gains taxes when a property is sold as long as the proceeds are reinvested in an appropriate property. The government is basically encouraging investors to stay in the market with this fantastic incentive.

A final benefit of investing in real estate is flexible sales contracts. While in the stock market, you can invest only cash, you can make creative offers for real estate, exchanging virtually anything for property. This flexibility can produce greater returns and arrangements that benefit everyone involved.