Money talks. This is one of those truisms that always makes me want to say, “yeah, but I can’t quite make out what it says.” This always raises a laugh when I give speeches or presentations to those who want to learn more about how to make money investing in real estate. On more serious reflection however the saying is spot on.

Over the course of the best part of a decade I have made more than a million dollars investing in real estate and have, in the process, acquired more than 4,000 apartments. So when I explain how I did it what I am really doing is giving you the blueprint to do exactly the same.

While I am successful I am not exceptional. I too used to struggle with a dead-end job that was killing me, worked long hours for a relatively poor reward and struggled to make ends meet. What changed it all for me was the fact that I was able to make use of my expertise to leverage real estate deals using other people’s money for a share of the profits.

The fact that I could play at almost any level on an equal basis with those who had massive budgets, risk no money of my own and still close deals and make money was something I discovered when I was creating an inventory of the skills I had and a list of what I was lacking.

My knowledge of the real estate market and my ability to talk the language of both house owners and house buyers as well as the fact that I knew exactly what buttons to press with mortgage lenders was a quality I could market well enough to attract investors who were willing to put up money in order to invest in real estate and take a slice of the profits after I had closed the deal and made a sale.

The fact that they had the money but not my knowledge was a revelation to me which only strengthened my belief in myself. This way of working in the real estate investment field is called putting an investment syndicate together. Essentially this is a group of people who are also looking to spread their money and limit their exposure and, as a result, are more than willing to pool their resources and, for a share of the profits, have a professional front their activities.

Working through real estate investment syndicates like this allows you to punch way above your weight and make real money from real estate real fast.