Investing in real estate offers a unique opportunity to accelerate the appreciation of the cash invested.

As an example, if you wanted to buy two hundred thousand dollars worth of stock, you would need the entire amount. (Although it is possible to buy stock on margin, you don’t get the opportunity to make payments on it.)

As an alternative, if you wanted to buy a two hundred thousand dollar house, you could put 25% down ($50,000) and finance the rest.

If the house appreciated 6%, it’s value would go up by twelve thousand dollars. Since the amount of cash invested was $50,000 (not the full price of the property,) you would realize a cash-on-cash return of 24%.