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Real estate investing is far from easy, many people would say.

Buying a property and hoping to re-sell it quickly at a gain isn’t a workable scenario in the current business climate.

If you’re looking for long-term appreciation, you need to purchase a property at a price that allows room to pay management fees. Or you can manage the property. Here’s what’s hard to predict: the tenants.

Commercial real estate is risky too, depending on the local market. So you are thinking about residential real estate. Managing it yourself may mean you are doing a lot of maintenance. And how do you find the right tenant? How do you create a lease? What you want is a stable situation with a tenant who stays a long time and keeps up the property. How do you get there?

You may want to consider a real-estate investment trust (REIT), if you want an investment that is low-maintenance. You buy shares in a REIT fund, which is publicly traded. The fund typically holds commercial property and/or mortgages. The value of these funds may go up when the stock market goes down, allowing you to hedge your bets.

But REIT funds, like mutual funds, charge management fees. Are these taking away your profits? Perhaps you would prefer a property with a deed as your real estate investment.

You could consider a pre-packaged system where you choose a new or nearly new single-family house from a variety of relative low-cost local markets. With the system comes a pre-selected reliable property manager at negotiated rates. The loan situation is negotiated, too, at five to 10 percent down.

A system like this will give you a predictable set of expenses and income. In fact, your tenants will pay off the mortgage for you. You can start a college fund for your kid this way–you can sell the house in 15 to 20 years, and take out your equity.