Today is seems that virtually everyone is interested in real estate investing. And why not? Real Estate is one of the few industries that present numerous opportunities for employment and financial independence. It is also one of the few industries where the majority of the participants are self-employed. With that in mind I’d like to outline some of the major opportunities to help you understand how to take advantage of them.

Perhaps the best known position in all of real estate investing is that of "Property Locator". Property Locators, a.k.a “bird-dogs”, or transaction analysts, as I like to call them, are typically unlicensed individuals who begin their investing careers by searching for investment grade deals.

Property Locators typically work for investors or investment companies who need individuals to help them find more investing opportunities. I personally spent several years inside an investment company working as a property locator and have helped train hundreds of locators. This can be an excellent way to break into real estate investing if you are a novice with no experience.

Ideally a property locator will begin their career by working with an investment company. These companies should be in a position to buy the properties. This means that the locator does not have to take any financial risk nor put contracts in their own name. Some companies may charge a fee for their locator training. Legitimate investment companies are interested in making sure that their locators understand what kinds of properties to look for and how to evaluate them properly. Before you sign on with any company, ask to see a list of deals that they have purchased or sold recently. The best companies are those that can buy the deals themselves, and are regular buyers.

For ultimate success as a property locator your objective should be to become proficient at evaluating the profit potential of any property. Locators who are good at identifying profitable deals can earn anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars for finding and identifying the best investment opportunities. But keep in mind that investors are paying for good deals. If you are not good at evaluating deals, you will have trouble getting investors to buy the deals you find.

Property locators do not perform the same functions that an agent may perform on behalf of an investor. Usually when working with locators the investor will negotiate with the seller directly and write their own offers. The locator simply finds the property, does the initial analysis and due diligence and passes the information along to the investor involved. Locators are not performing the same acts that an agent or broker may perform on behalf of a client.

If you are a real estate agent or broker you should also consider adding real estate investors to your client list. Traditionally, many brokers have discouraged their agents from working with investors. But the fact is that investors buy and sell more real estate than any other individual or company. I am also a licensed real estate agent in the state of Georgia. I do handle residential sales but working with real estate investors is the cornerstone of my business.

Working the investment side of the real estate industry is a great way for agents and brokers to expand their client base and their income potential. The key here for agents and brokers is to get proper training with regard to evaluating investment property and its profit potential.

Though I have years of experience as a licensed real estate agent, my understanding of the investment side of the business did not come from the experience gained as an agent working in the residential market. It was the result of spending several years working with investment companies and doing my own deals as an investor.

Because of this combination of both agent experience and education as well as investment company experience I have been able to put the two together to develop a strong ability to analyze investment-grade real estate and make reasonable profit projections. This gives me the ability to recognize the investment potential in any property, and structure offers that, if accepted, will be profitable for my investor clients.

Agents and brokers can make excellent property locators for two big reasons. No. 1 they have access to more listing and property information and secondly they are in a position to work with banks and lenders to negotiate short sales and work specifically with properties listed on the MLS.

While you do not have to be licensed to negotiate a short sale it is certainly an advantage. Licensees are also in a position to generate investment grade business by listing REO's, pre-foreclosures, and helping with short sales. Most importantly they have the ability to network with other brokers and do referral business across the United States, thereby making themselves available to a national market place.

Using licensed agents as property locators is an advantage to investors because the seller usually pays the agent's commission. This means that investor buyers have the opportunity to utilize the services of a knowledgeable agent at no cost to them. Many unlicensed investors and investment companies work with both licensed agents and unlicensed property locators.

Property locators who are not licensed may need to work with agents on occasion in order to facilitate transactions for listed properties. In these cases the agent is paid by the seller and the locator is paid by their investor buyer. This way everything is kept legal since agents cannot pay commissions or referral fees to unlicensed property locators.

As the training director for The Real Estate Arena, I work with locators, agents, brokers and investors from all across the U.S. TREA is a web based real estate investing community that provides a wide range of opportunities including a listing service to promote your deals, training and support, business building tools such as web logs, and personal websites, access to search links for listed and non-listed properties, including FSBO’s, REO's, Foreclosures, property evaluation tools and much more. TREA members have the advantage of being able to market themselves, their deals and their business services to a national market place of like-minded real estate enthusiasts.

Our national membership includes property locators, agents, brokers, investors, mortgage brokers, loan originators, appraisers and others associated with the world of real estate and real estate investing. For a small monthly fee, members get access to top quality investor training, including live coaching calls each and every week, and members from all over the nation are able to network with each other. Through the power of the web, we are able to create business, networking, and investment opportunities that were not even possible just a few short years ago.

Agents and brokers will find opportunities to participate in larger investment grade deals that can potentially generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions. Best of all, the content is moderated, and screened for quality. To discover how you can fit into the world of real estate investing on a national level go to www.TheRealEstateArena.com

Donna Robinson is a licensed real estate agent in Georgia. She handles real estate transactions for home owners, and investors, as well as commercial real estate transactions and private funding for development. She is the Training Director for The Real Estate Arena, and works to insure that TREA provides high quality content for it’s members.