What exactly does a real estate investor do?

I've always thought that a real estate investor just bought houses, fixed 'em up, and sold them for more money or something of that sort.

Am I completely off the mark?

i thought so too. hope u get answers so i can find out

What you're thinking of is just a "house-flipper". It's a part of real estate investing, but not the only part. A lot of investors also rent out their property. For example, my uncle is an investor, all of his money comes from renting. He owns lots of buildings, strip malls, etc. He has a huge apartment building with 100+ apartments, each paying him $1000 a month, thats a lot of money. He also owns commercial real estate, which is when you rent out space for businesses.

So basically there's two areas of real estate investing, leasing and selling.

Hope that helped

There are many types of real estate investors but you're describing a very popular kind because going the residential route is one of the "easiest" to get into - plus the fact that there are so many fix and flip tv shows on these days. Akin to the RE investor you mention is the silent partner or financial backer to the individual that is finding, fixing, flipping. Quite often the 'flipper' needs a backer and the backer too is considered an RE investor. There are also RE investors of the commercial variety. Retail strip malls - typical example: buy land, build a strip mall, lease the space - a little more involved than a residential flip. Another retail scenario includes optioning land, approaching a retail chain with a location offer, then build-to-suit. The list goes on... commercial investors that re-fit larger buildings into smaller sections to house more businesses - this one is in many ways similar to the residential fixer and flipper. If you're interested in flipping residential homes check out foreclosure listings by HUD (Dept of Housing and Urban Development), or ask any of your local banks if they have a REO (real estate owned) list. In many cases you can find a house below market value in need of a cosmetic makeover. The Veterans Administration also has foreclosure listings and you don't have to be a veteran to take them over. Hope this helps.

Puts up the money to buy properties that have a high prospect of sale with a larger price tag. Usually this mean you buy a lot of land, and land in around that area. You build somethig on lot A that brings people to the area. Then you sell land in lots B C D and so at higher prices for houses, businesses etc.

Just going out and buying land isn't that easy. And sellig it for more than you got it for is even harder.

That's one way of doing it. Then there are others who loan money to invest in real estate.

you got it.. thats what they do..

A real estate investor is someone who buys a property and turns it into an asset. In other words they make money work for them. Such as buying a property that is zoned as rural but is about to turn commercial and then making deals to zone it as commercial. Everyone here knows that mcdonalds makes money selling hamburgers, right. No wrong, mcdonalds makes money by making property valuable. In other words they make the building, and make people pay to run it.

There are many ways to invest in real estate. I have been flirting with the idea for awhile of going into real estate. What you mentioned is called flipping homes, there is a great show on TLC called "flip this house", or something like that. Very interesting, they sometimes make six figure profits. You can also buy homes and then rent them out, this provides a continuous stream of income as long as the rent is more than the mortgage payments.