Real estate investing is an exciting, yet lucrative, way to create sustainable wealth and residual income, while securing your family's economic future. Unlike many other business opportunities, real estate entrepreneurs don't need a mountain of cash or flawless credit in order to get in the game. Here are four effective strategies for launching your own real estate investing empire

Bird Dogging -- This is probably one of the simplest ways of getting started as a real estate investor. Instead of marketing property, you're more of an information broker. A bird dog simply locates property that is available at below market prices, gathers some information about the property and the owner, and forwards the information to a real estate investor that would be willing to make the purchase.

Bird dogs gather much of the information a real estate investor needs in order to evaluate whether or not a property would make a good investment. Examples of the kind of information gathered include:

· Name and address of property owner

· Asking price of the property

· Condition of property (sometimes with photographs)

· Information about current financing and payment status

· Background information regarding liens and other encumbrances

· Detailed report about owner's motivation to sell

· Sometimes an analysis of rehabilitation costs and anticipated after repair value

Depending on the arrangement you work out with the investor and the amount of work involved, bird dog fees average between $500 and $1000 -- and sometimes much more. You don't need any cash or credit, and because you're simply providing another investor with information, there's absolutely no risk to you of becoming entangled in any type of property dispute. You risk only your time, and if the investor to which you give the information fails to pay you for your services, you simply avoid doing business with that investor again in the future. However, investors are hungry for moneymaking properties; therefore, the overwhelming majority will gladly pay you for quality information.

Wholesaling -- This method of real estate investing involves many of the same elements of bird dogging, but in this case, you actually approach the owner of the property, negotiate a sales price, and place the property under contract for sale. Instead of making the purchase yourself, however, you assign -- or sell -- your interest in the property to another investor, who then completes the transaction in your place.

For instance, pretend you locate a property worth $100,000 and you were able to negotiate a sales price with the owner of $60,000. You would gather all the required information, and "sell" your real estate contract to another investor. That investor will generally be willing to pay you between $1000 and $3000 for the right to complete the transaction with the seller in your place. Again, the amount of money you can make for each transaction will vary depending upon the investor with whom you are working and the amount of work you have invested in the process. I've heard of investors receiving as much as $5000-$10,000, depending on the margin of profit available to the investor.

Double Closing -- Sometimes you'll locate a property that has an extremely motivated owner. If you do, it's possible that the seller might be willing to sell you the property for as little as 40% of its value. If this happens, you can still assign your contract to another buyer, but you may want to keep more of the profit for yourself. When this is the case, you simply arrange for a double closing. Here's how it works:

· You sign a contract to purchase the property from the seller

· You then sign a contract to sell the property to another buyer or investor

· On closing day, the investor or buyer of the property pays you for your interest in the property

· You then take the proceeds you've received from the sale of the property to pay the seller, retaining the difference for yourself

Because there is an increased risk that your buyer could potentially back out of the deal before the transaction is complete, you receive a much greater reward. Another way of accomplishing the same goal is by you obtaining a hard money loan in order to pay the seller first for the property. You can then turn around and sell your interest in the property to another buyer. While you'll incur some financing charges to the hard money lender, you may determine that the expense is worth it in light of the amount of money you'll be making off of the deal.

Subject to -- The fourth strategy I want to identify for getting involved in real estate investing with little cash or credit is by purchasing a property from a seller subject to the existing financing. You don't have to actually assume legal responsibility for the existing financing, but you are purchasing from the seller and are acknowledging the existence of the current financing.

Each month, you would pay the owner of the property a house payment equal to the amount you've worked out, and the homeowner will then make the underlying mortgage payment, retaining the difference for themselves.

If the owner's lender finds out that equitable title of the property has passed to you, there is an outside chance that the lender could call the note and require payment in full for the loan. However, the reality is that right now millions of Americans are unable to make their house payments. Lenders are overwhelmed by foreclosures and other delinquencies. They don't have the time or the inclination to look at each payment check that comes through the door to ensure that the payment is actually being made by the borrower. In all honesty, they're just grateful to get their money; they really don't care how the loan gets paid as long as it gets paid.

As you can see, getting into the real estate game and making money is possible regardless of whether or not you have impeccable credit or a mountain of cash at your disposal. I've identified just four ways that you can get involved in real estate investing on a scale congruent to your level of experience and your willingness to take on risk. There are many others that you can learn. A good real estate Coach can provide advice and insider knowledge about these and many other more advanced real estate investing techniques. Regardless of whether you seek out a mentor or you fly solo, real estate investing provides you with multiple ways of creating wealth and a much brighter future. You won't get rich overnight, but by being smart and learning the ropes real estate investing can be your ticket to a secure future.