One of the best ways to diversify your portfolio, apart from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other financial instruments, is through real estate. The real estate market offers tremendous opportunities for people to invest, and varying degrees of investment risk, based on your comfort level. Here are four real estate investment strategies to consider this year, from least challenging to expert level.
Airbnb
One of the lowest risk methods to enter the lucrative real estate investment market is to leverage property you already have from a vacation home to an unused bedroom in your home or apartment. And one of the best ways to do this is with Airbnb. Airbnb is a great crowdsourcing website that sets up prospective short-term renters with people who literally have rooms to spare. You can rent your space on the site for a date, duration, and price of your choosing; the site handles the financial end of the transaction and ensures you get paid (for a fee). This is a great, low-risk introduction to real estate investing, and an innovative way to use your own existing real estate to earn a relatively dependable passive income stream.
A general view of the house where Harry Potter lived in the Warner Brothers film 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in Bracknell, England on July 22, 2003. Warren Little/Getty Images
