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There has always been a degree of *racy glamour* to the world of property investment. Too often the image has always been portrayed as an industry being handled and managed by *be-suited city types* wheeling and dealing any huge multimillion dollar fortunes/

It doesn't really matter what your perception of property development he is, the fact is that if you can time it correctly, manage it properly it's a very useful tool in any investment portfolio.

Investing in residential property has become well and truly established in recent years. Volatile share and bond markets have simply underlined the inherent strengths in bricks and mortar for long-term investments.

Few can have failed to notice the growth in residential property investment over the past decade. There have been many contributing factors behind this, not least the advent of buy-to-let finance offered by banks, the increased volatility in equities markets that has seen supposed blue chip names fall from grace and of course the significant returns from residential property over the pasta for 30 years.

The great majority of people are now looking to own an investment property as part of a balanced and well diversified portfolio. Private bankers and IFA's have tended to bypass the residential sector, leaving their clients to deal with this themselves.

If you were to ask most people what their concept of property investment was I wouldn*t be surprised to see the response's comeback in much the sort of vein as *well, buy a flat or a house, do it up and then sell it on, make a profit and reinvest*. This as an approach might be simplistic but it's not too far from the truth and if followed to a limited degree in theory should lead to success.

However their comes a time as in any business or industry that you move out of the shallows into slightly deeper waters on this point you really do need to know what you're doing or you need to get in the services of experts.

This is the point in the entire process way you start to consider issues like gearing and borrowing funds to help increase the asset base of your portfolio thereby actually giving you a greater return on your initial capital. It is this sort of concept that differentiates a part time player from the professional who read he does understand what they're doing.

Only when you start to look a property like this do you really stand a chance of making regular sizable returns on your hard earned money and giving your self a fighting chance to actually make a profit so that you can reinvest and earn more. If you are going to be remotely involved in property beyond buying renovating and selling then you need to consider issues like ongoing property management and tenancy agreements. Not only do you need to consider these issues you need to understand them properly as well.