Is real estate a suitable investment for retirement? It most definitely can be, and many individuals have built a comfortable existence by amassing a portfolio of real estate investments.

However, nothing is certain, and some unlucky individuals lose their money as well as everything else. Investing in real estate takes a certain level of knowledge, expertise, intuition, and guts. Real estate can be a terrific investment if you have these attributes and work hard. With that in mind, it is possible to use real estate to retire early, or at least retire later but more comfortably. Read on to find out more.

Ongoing Income 

When you purchase a rental property, it instantly begins to generate revenue for you. And it never ends. Best of all, to get this money, you don’t have to sell any assets – in fact, that’s the only way your ongoing income will come to a close. 

The traditional nest egg technique is all about amassing a portfolio of paper investments such as shares and securities and then gradually selling them off to generate income to survive monthly. As a consequence, your net worth diminishes over time, and you face the danger of running out of money.

Rental properties don’t carry such danger because of their continual passive revenue. On the contrary, real estate often increases over time, increasing your net worth rather than decreasing it. 

Rents Rise 

Rents not only grow to keep up with inflation, but they are a leading cause of it. This means you won't have to worry about inflation eroding your gains over time, as you would with bonds.

Assume you purchase a bond with a five percent yearly interest rate. If the rate of inflation is two percent, your actual return is just three percent. That isn’t exactly the most exciting prospect and may not even seem worthwhile. When it comes to real estate, most of the time, your rental cash flow and cash-on-cash returns will increase with time, particularly if you employ leverage. So you don’t have to worry about having a small return. 

Lease Options 

Lease options can be a terrific way to get started in real estate without having to put up a lot of money or even have outstanding credit. You're leasing with the opportunity to purchase. This works particularly well when the real estate market is rising since you're establishing a fixed price at which you can subsequently buy the home, possibly for less money than you would spend if you didn’t lease first.

If, for example, the real estate market rises significantly, you might be able to purchase that property at a bargain price. You might also possibly sell the rights to that purchase to someone else. The obvious bet here is on the real estate market rising. As long as this is an option that you can exercise rather than a requirement that you buy at the conclusion of the lease, you might be able to generate a profit and retire because of it. 

Contract Flipping 

Flipping contracts is another technique to generate money in real estate without putting up much cash or credit, which is why it can lead to an early – or comfortable (or both) – retirement if you are careful. All you have to do is discover a seller who urgently wants to sell and a motivated buyer, then connect them. While finding a distressed seller may seem daunting, there are systems in place to help you, and it’s just a case of searching them out and finding the right option for you. The key to contract flipping is to find a worried seller and a ready-to-go buyer.

The great thing about this idea is that you've eliminated the need to go looking for a buyer after you've engaged in a contract by bringing these parties together. That scenario is more dangerous and has a lot of potential to go wrong, leaving you with a lot of money to spend out and a property you don’t really want. Instead, by identifying the sellers and purchasers ahead of time, you can simply create a contract with the assurance that you will not be forced to complete escrow on the property.

To do so, you must be able to identify either unoccupied properties or residences that have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. That is the difficult part. You're essentially looking for troubled sellers, but houses that are currently unoccupied are ideal for this kind of opportunity. Buyers like empty properties and sellers want to be rid of them. 

Vacation Rentals 

Vacation rentals can be a profitable way to make money in the real estate market and potentially enough money to retire on if you plan things out carefully. Vacation rentals might not only provide some side income, but they can also provide a big amount of money and a substantial passive income stream if you buy property in a high-trafficked tourist area. Short-term rentals are in great demand in places that are tourist hotspots, although bear in mind that it can also be much more expensive to live in these areas as well. 

What's the greatest part of the vacation rental business? To earn money, you don't even need to own the properties. Some of the world's most successful vacation rental property management firms don’t own the houses but offer a high-end customer experience. So if you can manage other people’s properties for them, you can make good money and not have to spend anything, which is ideal if you want to retire without any debt. 

Commercial Real Estate 

Buying in commercial real estate is one of the best ways to earn a big amount of money in real estate, but it's something that many people overlook in favor of residential real estate. Commercial real estate developers are interested in more than just flipping buildings; they are also keen to develop them and adding value to assets in order to increase their net income via restorations and improvements.

Commercial real estate is one of the most profitable sources of revenue and earnings in the real estate industry. Investing in commercial real estate might be one of the most lucrative income generators you can discover, as long as you can find ways to add value to the transaction that will enable you to retire early.