There are several ways to invest in real estate. You can buy a land, or house and lot and then wait for them to increase in value and sell them or you can rent them to receive a regular income from your renters. Just like any other investments, real estate comes with a risk which can be low or high, and you need to understand them before diving into it.
The advantage of investing in real estate is that it usually goes up in value. I said usually because there are cases when its value can go down and it can give you headaches and financial loses, so consider these possibilities before making a decision. Even if you have a good chance of making a profit, there is no guarantee that you will be profitable in a real estate investment.
Questions you need to ask yourself is do you want to lock your money in that investment while waiting for its value to go up? Or in the case of renting, are you willing to take on the challenges of being a landlord? Is the profit that you are expecting reasonable and would your money be better invested in another kind of investment?
Investing in real estate can be risky since the cost is high which means that your diversification goes down. If you are buying a real estate in cash then you are putting a large amount of your money in a single investment which could go up or go down in value. If you are taking a mortgage loan to buy a real estate property then the interest payment of your loan eats up on your potential profit. Taking loans to invest is very risky so you need to be very careful about making that decision.