The main ways to invest in real estate

If you've ever looked into buying a home to live in, you've already touched some real estate basics: down payments, mortgages, association dues. This course sets that aside and treats property purely as a way to make money, the way you'd treat a stock or a business, not a place to raise a family.

There are three main paths in. Renting out property means buying a unit or a house and collecting monthly rent from a tenant, aiming for steady income plus whatever the property gains in value over the years. Flipping means buying a property below market value, often one that needs work, fixing it up, and reselling it quickly for a profit. Buying REIT shares means owning a small slice of large, professionally managed income-producing buildings through the stock market, without ever touching a mop or a tenant.

Each path asks something different of you. Renting demands ongoing time and a tolerance for tenant headaches in exchange for steady cash flow. Flipping demands renovation know-how, cash reserves, and a stomach for risk in exchange for a faster, lump-sum payoff. REITs demand almost nothing hands-on but hand you less control and smaller, steadier returns. The rest of this course walks through each in detail so you can see which, if any, fits how you want to invest.

With ₱2,500,000 to put toward real estate, you could buy a small condo and rent it out for ₱15,000 a month, buy a run-down unit for ₱1,800,000, spend ₱400,000 renovating it, and sell it for ₱2,600,000, or simply buy ₱2,500,000 worth of shares in a listed REIT and collect dividends without owning any physical property at all.