How To Become A Real Estate Investor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a real estate investor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Stephen Buckman

As a Real Estate Investor, you will actively or sometimes passively invest in real estate. If you are an active Investor, you will buy property, make repairs and improvements, and sell it for a profit. You make your living as a Real Estate Investor by purchasing investment properties and generating money for the long-term.

Become a Real Estate Investor allows you to make good money almost immediately. You will get income from rental properties as well as investment properties. You will need to have good communication, patience, and money for investmnent. Real Estate Investing is difficult and requires an initial investment of time and effort.

To become a Real Estate Investor, you may need a college degree in finance, economics, business administration, computer science, statistics, and mathematics. You also need to know the market, be honest, encourage referrals, stay educated and understand the risks. You can make a great deal of money as a Real Estate Investor, and some investors have made millions.

What general advice would you give to a real estate investor?

Stephen Buckman

Associate Professor, Clemson University

Make yourself valuable by finding your niche where you become a valuable piece. Take risks when you are young without a lot to lose. Learn from mistakes and fail forward.

ScoreReal Estate InvestorUS Average

Salary

6.4

Avg. Salary $81,345

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.4

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.59%

Asian 5.26%

Black or African American 8.56%

Hispanic or Latino 17.64%

Unknown 4.13%

White 63.82%

Gender

female 31.60%

male 68.40%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress level

8.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a real estate investor

Explore real estate investor education requirements

Most common real estate investor degrees

Bachelor's

64.3 %

Associate

15.8 %

Master's

8.5 %

Start to develop specific real estate investor skills

Skills	Percentages
Residential Real Estate	12.00%
Real Estate License	11.00%
General Contractors	9.55%
Financial Analysis	8.37%
Property Management	5.36%

Complete relevant real estate investor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New real estate investors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a real estate investor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real real estate investor resumes.

Research real estate investor duties and responsibilities

Establish and manage an LLC for real estate investment properties in the state of Florida.
Manage reporting requirements to senior management on status of real estate portfolio.
Provide administrative management of a portfolio of assign commercial real estate loans in accordance with credit policy requirements for risk management.
Generate valuations of IRR, NPV, and other financial ratios for investors emphasizing return on investment.

Prepare your real estate investor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your real estate investor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a real estate investor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable real estate investor resume templates

Build a professional real estate investor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your real estate investor resume.